The Longest Journey
by Bhryn Astairre
Summary: Radiant Garden is destroyed, the Heart Guard broken and lives torn apart. But through it all, they will learn that no matter how long the journey home, their hearts are always together...
1. Prologue

**The Longest Journey**

_--This is a Fiction created by a Fangirl, for other Fans. Take it with a pinch of salt—_

_-Disclaimer: I fail to own KH or KH2. Which is a heartbreaking realisation…-_

_----------------------------_

_Take only love, take only dreams  
__From this life into the next._

_Ancient Saying_

_--------------------------_

**Part One: Prologue**

_Tomorrow became today rather quickly._

_Of course, tomorrow knows that today must pass, that today, being insensitive and wanton will fritter itself away on the inconsistent wind and us too, like ghosts of yesterday, will pass with it. _

_The world I love died._

_The knowledge of others that passed and left stays strong in my heart, and I know that somewhere on this long, continuing road, there will be other faces, other times when this heart so broken and so inconsistent will surge and beat again, and in beating, I will know the future._

_But back then… I couldn't get by with scraped knees, not like you. I am not you. I am frail, weak, and fragile. A sorry state of someone who was once something powerful, something great and awe inspiring._

_You must remember that day, do you not? Do you remember how much I cried?_

_The pain in my heart… my fingers, tingling and my eyes burning, with tears, with shock._

_I remember the heat of the flames…_

_

* * *

_

Breathlessly she scaled the steps in hurried bounds, pulled along by the stronger girl.

She wanted to call out for her to wait, but knew the fear festering in her heart was mirrored plainly and openly on the face of the girl, only a few months younger than she was, desperately hauling her up the steps. Black hair flew about her in a cloud of panic, drifting strands of someone she loved dearly and the ruby red eyes were tormented, turning about the place, seeking shelter from the coming 'storm'.

Behind her cries of battle drew loud and sharp, clattering of metal on metal and onto stone, the numb tumble of a body and sometimes, deathly silence. She had grown used to the sound of war, it hardly made her flinch but the taut face of the black haired girl was pained, agonised almost. At such a young age, she couldn't blame her. But, she didn't have the brother that Aerith Gainsborough did…

Sephiroth… His mad plots to overthrow the Kingdom had failed thankfully, a kind of madness, she said, that was inherited from misuse of dark magic that she herself only used sparingly, when the occasion arose for it. She remembered that day, when like a phoenix from the flames rising up higher and higher, he had looked down on her… sneered at…

No, Tifa Lockhart did not have the brother Aerith did, and such things she supposed, the girl was lucky for.

"Stop," Tifa commanded, tugging her in close to a wall and without comment, she pressed herself there, trying to gather up her breath.

"…" Straining her hearing, there were the sounds of something eating, something scratching and the feeble moans of a person. She closed her green eyes, wishing that she could block the sound out, block out the overwhelming empathy that flowed, the pain of the person lay dying and being eaten about the corner, the backwash of fear and disgust from Tifa.

"…Come on," Tifa said, grabbing her hand again with a flush of cool creaking leather gloves and together they spun out from the corner. Tifa pounded down the hallway so fast that the creature made of shadow only had a small second of time to look up from the meal of blood and gore.

Aerith was a little slower on her feet; she wasn't a trained martial artist. But when those eyes turned upon her, she flung out her hand and a fireball seemed to materialise from the beating in her veins, the hot rampage of her blood and fire outwards from the flat palm. It engulfed the creature and immolated it.

She hated using fire most of all…

In the spurting flames as she ran after Tifa, a glance back gave her only the fleeting memory of someone sneering with eyes as cat green as her own.

Running into the room, Tifa closed the door with a heavy shove from her shoulder, and then leaned there, breathing heavily. Aerith took her time to brush her hair back; her hand was shaking just a little from the sight of fire.

"What," gasped the younger fighter, "W-what is going on here?"

"I don't know, but I wonder if this has anything to do with what King Ansem warned us about…"

"A-Ansem? Some warning…" Tifa gulped air and closed her eyes. "Those creatures, what are they? How can we fight something like that?"

"I don't know… you're the Heart Guard, not me."

"You're… You're Heart Guard too; don't try to get out of it that way."

"I'm just an assistant… since he left…" She trailed off.

Tifa's eyes fixed on her and a blush of red shame suffused her cheeks, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Aerith shook her head and turned to look about the library of the massive Castle where Ansem lived, where they had been going through routines when the sky had cracked and darkness entered. The Radiant Garden was lost completely in a haze of shadows. She wasn't even sure where anyone else was. There was only herself… and Tifa.

"If we keep going up," she said, "We'll get to the Gummi dock. We can probably find Cid there. He's likely helping refugees to escape."

"Great… I think that we have company coming so… no time like the present to run away. Let's go Aerith, stop gasping for air!" Her hand was seized again.

As they both ran up the stairs, Aerith's pink dress flaring and Tifa's black hair flying, she didn't have the heart to correct her that Tifa had been the one gulping air…

* * *

He had thrown her over his shoulder, much to her howls of distress.

Of course, Squall never paid attention to anything that should bother him, that should mark him as human as the rest of them. Well… apart from maybe Aerith and Sephiroth… and maybe even Rinoa too… Oh none of that mattered!

She hammered on his back with her fists in the hope of dislodging herself or maybe making her captor slow down, but he paid her about as much attention as he would a gnat. Her youthful pride couldn't comprehend that someone would so willingly ignore someone such as she was!

"I'm the daughter of the Leader of the Utai Ninja, let me down! LET ME DOWN!"

"… Whatever."

"Whatever!? Whatever isn't an answer, it's a… a… it's not an answer, whatever it is!"

"…"

"Are you listening you muscle bound oaf? I don't care if you're a Heart Guard; you'll let me down right this instant or I'll… throw up on you!"

"Inventive."

Yuffie, the carried person, sighed and blew at her fringe, staring dismally at the floor as she realised that she couldn't even force herself to vomit – it was one of the few things she detested with a passion. The heir to the famous clan of Ninja that served Radiant Garden and outlying lands and villages was a girl perhaps not much older than thirteen, jostled on his shoulder as he ran. Her hair was bobbed uniformly short to her chin and with a fringe that settled just above her scowling brows. Her clothes reflected her profession, even to the sock that valiantly struggled down to her shoe, even with her being carried.

The person doing the carrying was Squall, the strong silent type who had received a scar in training down his face that only slightly marred his stern beauty. Slate coloured eyes briefly scoured the hallway. She wondered if he even felt hot, wearing the full uniform of a Heart Guard – he had been on duty when the attack had finally come crashing down upon Radiant Garden.

"Where are you taking me anyway!?"

"To the Gummi dock."

"To where? But the… my father isn't there, I refuse, you put me down right now!"

"Your father is dead."

Yuffie stiffened with a muted cry of pain, a knife blade that went unseen into her heart. Her father was dead? He seemed so… indestructible, all formal ways and serious expressions, superbly trained and the greatest warrior she could think of, next to the Heart Knight, Sephiroth.

Did…that mean her clan were also…?

She flailed at his back, gritting her teeth against the tears, legs kicking wildly, "You horrible person! You're cruel! Mean! Are you a Heartless?! Are you!? Only a Heartless would say something that nasty! My father isn't dead, my father isn't dead… my father…"

Squall sighed softly and gently lowered the sobbing Yuffie to her feet. She didn't even realise she was standing until her half bare shoulders touched the cold of the marble wall behind her, making her choke on a sob in surprise. She glared balefully up at him through her tears, hands bunching.

He just looked down at her, sad eyed and still young, he thought through a fog of furious despair, only sixteen. He took her shoulders firmly and she tensed. "Lady Kisaragi," he said formally, "I can only… apologise. I am sorry, but I do not lie."

"T-then…" before she knew it, she was weeping, held up only by his hands.

"…his last wish was that you escape so his line continues to the day and beyond when we manage to get rid of the Heartless."

That sounded good, exterminating those creatures that had caused her father's death and her clan… a blood feud would demand no less. Determined she thrust her chin out and scrubbed at the tears, "I will kill them all. You'll see. One day, I'll be a great Ninja."

"…"

"I'm Yuffie," she said then, in a small voice.

"I'm Squall," he sighed and reached down to pick her up again, but just as he was scooping his strong arms about her wobbly self – crying always make her weak- there was a groaning from down the corridor.

"Squall…" she breathed, frightened.

"I heard it… crouch down." His hands left her to move to the strange gun-blade device strapped to his hip and with practised ease, unbuckled it so the weight lay in his hands. The dark noises continued for a moment or so, then gently trailed off.

Yuffie pressed her self close to the wall, realising her hands were shaking and with a child's determination, clenched them so her enemy wouldn't see her fear. Tucked into her waistband was a set of sharpened wooden shuriken, not much bar a child's toy that she had been playing with earlier, and without thinking she pulled one out and held it between first and second fingers, poised to throw it.

A detonation shattered the air as the wall right behind her exploded outwards in a shower of rubble and debris, the dust settling in clogging volumes that threatened to choke her. She couldn't see anything but marble dust and the growling roar of something huge. Squall pushed her back roughly, and as the air cleared she saw him get thrown away by something massive in size.

A heartless that seemed the size of a hay wagon loomed over her.

A hand came up and she squeaked and threw her little wooden shuriken, but it bounced from the tough hide of the round heartless, clattering somewhere into the dark shadows of the corridor. Squall groaned something, trying to rise and she squealed out, shutting her eyes against the darkness that would surely claim her as the hand began the whistling descent to hit her.

Then someone was there, grumbling as the sound of a hand smacking onto other skin was audible. Yuffie slowly pried her eyes open to the sight of a girl she didn't know all that well stood over her in dark leathers, gripping the hand and keeping it away from smashing them both into dust, muscles straining and teeth as white as a slice of the moon gritted in effort.

"Hurry it up, would you?" The girl snapped.

Another voice, sweet and calm answered from behind the young ninja, "It's not an easy spell to recall."

"It's heavy."

"…" There was a detonation, like a firework going off close by and Yuffie reeled from the sounds, sitting down as the air was suddenly filled with sparkles of light. The girl in dark leather straightened suddenly and turned with a flash of darker yet hair, like a raven's wing, to look up at the small remnant of a heart flying away. Yuffie couldn't help but think how beautiful such a parting from life was, her mouth hung open ever so slightly.

"…damned creatures," The girl snarled.

"Squall?" The soft voice asked and Yuffie turned around to look at where a girl in a pink dress was knelt carefully over the form of her rescuer as he tried vainly to sit up. Calm hands that shook not a single white took gentle hold of the strong arms and back, helping him raise enough to sit upright.

"I was careless. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," the girl smiled, looking towards where Yuffie was prone on the floor and the ninja girl blinked. The girl haloed in golden brown hair was beautiful in a kind of way that had been the mystery of the heart flying upwards, the kind of beautiful you read about or hear in fairy tales, ethereal and perfect. "Are you alright?"

"She seems to be," said the other girl.

Yuffie's senses were slowly returning to her as she studied the darker girl of the two, emblazoned on the sleeveless jacket of black leather she wore over her shorts and fitted vest was a heart entwined with thorns. The symbols of the Heart Guard, symbols that Squall wore on the arms of his jacket and a symbol she saw swinging on the pendant about the shorter girl's neck. This then must be Tifa Lockhart. And the girl that had flung magic about with such a detonation could only be…

She gave a squeak and scrambled to her feet. "I-I'm sorry…"

"You're right," Aerith Gainsborough and sister to the Heart Knight said, "She does seem alright."

Tifa snorted and dusted her hands down, "Can you walk, Squall?"

"Of course," sure enough he was on his feet and striding towards the young Ninja. Yuffie sighed inwardly; she knew she was going to get manhandled again. "We're off to the Gummi dock. I was going to come and look for Aerith after I got Yuffie to safety."

"Me?"

"Cloud asked me to."

"Cloud?" Aerith said, putting a hand to her chest and hurrying after Squall so that she stood between him and Yuffie. The young ninja peered up at the back of the magic user. "Where is Cloud?"

"…"

Tifa sighed, a long and sadly shivering kind of sigh and reached around to touch Aerith on the shoulder and Squall looked to the side. Aerith stood her ground, her green eyes as hard as agates, fixed on the face of the tall warrior.

"Where is Cloud?" she repeated, undeterred.

"I don't know."

"Aerith, honey," Tifa said soothingly but was rebuffed again by a shrug of a thin shoulder.

"I order you to go after him," she said sternly. "I order it, as your immediate superior."

"…"

Yuffie chose this precise moment to break in, "We have to go!"

Tifa looked down then grinned, putting a hand on her head so Yuffie's hair was ruffled by fingers creaking in leather, "Yeah, come on Rissy, even this girl know when to go and when to stay, right?"

"…"

"He's probably even already off world right now, and he asked Squall to look after you until he comes back, right? So let's go, no more waiting. Dilly-dally, shilly-shally…"

Aerith's hands were clenched even as she nodded and Yuffie stepped close to her, feeling comforted by the presence of someone that seemed to be in charge, but from her shorter height she could see the tears in the eyes of the girl, tears that she would spend years trying to fathom…

* * *

They ran.

Tifa knew her breath was catching in her throat but the encouraging shouts of Cid told them all that he had waited faithfully behind to the last, as if somehow knowing deep inside that the last few were coming. Ahead of her, the young Ninja girl ran like the wind, sprightly and without any sign of tiring which had surprised Tifa no end. Behind her, Squall was trying to help the quickly tiring Heartcaster onward, her feet dragging and her breath coming shortly. The stairs were slowly defeating her as they hurried up the spiral to the great doors of the Gummi Dock.

Behind them all, down the winding steps that yawned away in the cavernous pit of the tower, the hordes of Heartless were starting to swarm and she knew that they would be finished if they didn't into the ship with Cid.

Aerith cried out, stumbling over, but Squall was quickly enough to grumble and throw the girl over his shoulder, ignoring any weak pleas that she could still keep going. She was a magician, not an athlete after all!

Tifa ran harder; her legs felt like the blood in her veins were molten lava, burning up every inch of muscle and sinew, destroying her even as she sought so hard to live. Then they paused by the platform at the top of the stairs, trying to catch their breath and staring down at the pit of shadows that slowly crawled towards them.

Her eyes scanned the doors and the dock. Squall and Yuffie were already climbing into the ship whilst Cid was trying to calm down a suddenly upset Aerith. Tifa didn't have to strain her ears to know that he was telling her that Cloud had not come his way to get on any of the few remaining ships.

Tifa bit her lip hard…

For as long as she could remember, it was always Aerith looking out for the idiot Cloud, always making sure he didn't so something stupid, even since that incident not so long ago that had left them both in a laboratory crumbling with fire… all Aerith had done was cast spell after spell until the others had fought the fire to nothing, to keep herself and Cloud alive… and what had the idiot done? Not a single word of thanks.

Tifa could have clawed his eyes out for being so insensitive – she had seen the poor girl cry for days afterwards, Cloud taking to acting like nothing had ever happened. Pretending that Aerith's brother had not betrayed them all…

Still, Aerith had persisted, still she had kept trying and because Tifa loved Aerith, her best friend since childhood, she had stayed silent on the fact that she thought Cloud was a lost cause. Tifa wouldn't spend her time pushing him off a cliff if she could avoid it. But her best friend loved him, so she stayed quiet.

The closing mechanism to the door appeared to be snapped off from the inside and there were no handles on the inside to pull it closed, so gritting her teeth, she stapped back out and kicked on heavy panelled door closed with a resounding thud. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the door in surprise. Aerith's eyes looked from the door, to Tifa, to the mechanism and then with a flood of understanding that marked her face with horror, back to Tifa.

"What are you doing!?" she shrieked.

"…I'll find him for you." Tifa said calmly.

"…W-what?"

She smiled a lopsided but warm affair as she placed her leather clad hands on the other door and inexorably started to push it closed. "I'll go look for Cloud, so when we're all back together again… it'll be fine."

"Tifa, don't be stupid!"

"Is it stupidity, really, to want to see your best friend smile?" Tifa tilted her head, "Squall, Yuffie, protect her! …And Aerith, I loved you the best, okay? See you…"

"No!" The scream was cut off by the door shutting on the dock and the ships and every little scrap of her former life that Tifa wished to carry on.

Shaking with fear and exhilaration, she chuckled to herself as she leaned on the door, looking through the dark fringe of hair to the floor where the white capped sneakers peeked back up at her. In the corner of her eye she caught the surge of the darkness and looked up with a sigh.

"I loved you… best of all," she murmured, lifting her weary hands.

* * *

_So we left the world I loved, the world I called home._

_We went wherever the stars knew how to sing, where they shivered on the edge of something and discovered the world we had come to was a world called Traverse Town. We learned this world was the first to be inhabited by those who had fled Radiant Garden, a world that was devoured by the Heartless and slowly became synonymous with the name Hollow Bastion… because nothing else lingered there._

_Only hollow memories that we could only think of pray would remain just that instead of becoming Heartless, stay memories._

_I was alone, in a sense._

_The beloved ruler had abandoned us and sentenced us to death._

_My brother had betrayed me._

_My love was dead._

_My best friend gone._

…_a brave new world where I was now just Aerith and no longer Heartcaster opened up before me. I wasn't the only one affected by these changes; Squall took it upon himself to change his name to Leon. He said that he would only allow me to call him Squall, as he still recalled my rank above him… and that he would drop the name Leon once our world was restored._

_Yuffie became fiercely independent, often going days without coming back to our empty home if such a thing could be called home in the midst of all the madness… but I know she spent her time trying to hone the skills of her clan and forefathers. She never spoke of it directly to me, but I know she wanted to stop there being any more loss._

_As for me…?_

_I devoted myself to study. I devoted myself utterly to those black arts I had already walked in when Heartcaster. I knew that path I dreaded to take would be a dark and painful one, but the black arts of Magic and the white arts of Healing would come with me on the journey._

…_the longest journey I have ever undertaken…_

_To Home… to the Radiant Garden I remembered…_


	2. Traverse Town

_((Yay, thanks for the encouraging reviews guys - it's been so long since I wrote about KH... and I did promise another fic aaaages ago about KH and KH2, once I'd played 2. Hugs to you all! ...and yes, that IS Mulan... :P ))_

**The Longest Journey**

_Tomorrow is a dream to which we should all aspire  
__Ancient Proverb_

**Part Two: Traverse Town**

"Aerith."

She looked up from the arrangement of flowers to the face of the young man who was leaned on the door frame, hair covering his features and his complexion pale, but the slate blue eyes that regarded her were cool with common sense and calm logic. He had cast off his name but some small part of him still clung to the old ways, she noticed with a sad little smile. He wore the jacket with the heart on either arm cut to his elbow still, the most visible reminder that he had once been a member of the famous Heart Guard.

"I'm almost finished here, Squall," she said softly, softly was all she could speak in now, "And when I am finished, I will come with you to greet the new arrivals."

"Don't hurry on my account."

"I won't." She lifted another perfect bloom, held gingerly by the stem with the slightly wilted leaf and the curled bud that would one day open up to the sunshine and drink deeply of it. It was pale rose in colour, a suffusion of the sweetest and softest colours imaginable.

The vase was almost full; she had spent the period between late morning and noon arranging the flowers and trying to make some sense of the previous night's dream. She didn't often dream of home or of what had transpired there before; as far as Aerith was concerned, her life back home was over and as much as it pained her to admit it, she despaired of it ever returning to normal, no matter how much Squall and Yuffie tried to be positive. That place was Hollow Bastion. Radiant Garden existed only in their memories and for Aerith, those memories were too painful to deal with especially as the dissolution of their world seemed so immediate to her still.

She gave a wavering sigh and placed the long stemmed flower into the vase and touched it so the bud soon to open would receive as much sunlight as possible.

Aerith also knew, however, that not only as Heartcaster for the Heart Guard, she had developed a special communication with the world now long dead. Ever since she was little and her mother had explained that the blood of Ancients ran in her veins, she had been able to speak to the world beneath her feet. At times it seemed to annoy her elder brother, because even though his blood was the same as hers, he had no comforting voice in his ear when he was lonely: the Planet ignored him outright.

Did it know that such blanking out of her brother may have been a contributing factor to his betrayal?

She put the secateurs down and looked across to the door once again. "You don't have to take it so seriously, you know… this job of protecting me? I can protect myself."

"I always keep my promises," Squall replied, his tone just a touch harsh.

Her lips quirked into a mischievous smile, "Well, I wasn't the one who was thrown about like a doll in the corridor by a Heartless."

He jerked his head and snorted but she swore she could almost see the vaguest hint of a smirk floating about in his eyes – that was good, Squall had never been the easiest person to make smile and now, in this place, she was starting to wonder if he had the humour crushed right out of him. The hint in his eyes was all the relief and confirmation she needed to affirm the opposite of her dreadful suspicions.

_Still looking after all the other people_- she sighed.

"Perhaps," he said slowly, "But at least I can climb some stairs without getting winded."

Aerith stood up, putting her hands on her boyish hips and puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, "Oh, you're horrible."

He swung back to grin at her, the briefest of smiles and she smiled back, warmed by the sight of it. But Squall was Squall and never was put off for too long, so with a wave of his hand in a beckoning motion, he tried drawing her out. "We're going to be late."

"I thought you said not to hurry on your account."

"I did, but I'm not the one who'll be offended if we're late."

"Squall!" Aerith groaned and pushed past him, hands automatically trying to settle the rather fluffy bangs in her hair, "And just where is Yuffie?"

"Probably already there." He stayed behind her, like a knight would to his mistress, ready to jump up and do her bidding. She said nothing at how such mental comparisons to her brother wounded her and nothing about how it was always Tifa who had held her back and watched out for her and nothing, even less than nothing, of how she missed Cloud.

"At least someone will be," she sighed.

"Sweaty, dirty, ragged from training…" was his voice dripping with subtle sarcasm or was it just her hearing things?

She bunched her hands to fists and stormed through the place they called home, a dilapidated hotel they were trying to renovate into a halfway home for those who came from other worlds and if what Ansem had once said to his court of Magic during one meeting, there would be other worlds to fall.

Aerith blocked out the subtle sound of Squall chuckling behind her every step of the way.

Opening the door to the street, she sucked in a lungful of icy and sweet air, then sighed and looked about the world which was their home now. The street was wide with a fountain beneath them that never seemed to work despite how mechanics from their home-world had tried to fiddle around with it, the plumbers dumbfounded at why the water wouldn't flow. At the end furthest away from the door she had opened was a tall building with the moon face of a clock looking down upon her, the bells silent. They had always been silent since their arrival to this world almost six months ago.

She shivered; looking over the empty houses that she knew would come to be filled and cupped her arms about herself. She had left her favourite red jacket back at the castle in the hurry to escape the torrent of Heartless.

As she was idly staring at the surroundings Squall had slipped past her and was slowly opening the massive door to the First district. Some small part of her brain registered the grating of wood on the cobblestones that were unreliable after a morning rain, but her eyes had slowly been moving towards the night sky.

Stars twinkled there, lots of them.

How long, she wondered, would it be until another one faded from the sky?

He was calling her name, she realised and with a shake to wake her self from a stupor induced by the sky and stars and her own endless wheels of thinking, Aerith walked across the distance to go past him. He said nothing, a silent shadow like always and closed the door behind them with a vague thump of closing locks.

The First district was unlike the Second, in that the Second seemed to gather shadows and felt very lonely. The First was a reflection of goodwill and enduring merriment in the hearts of those who struggled on. Firefly lamps were hung around the place, dipping and brightening only a small unnoticeable amount every now and then. The streets were a golden sandstone colour and there was always something going on in the shops of the little brothers who ran the material goods store, the moogles and their furnace or perhaps Cid and his shop. She smiled and clasped her hands together before her.

"I like this place much better," she said to no one in particular.

"If you're lonesome for company, we can always get you a firefly lamp. I know little girls are often scared of the dark…"

Squall was already walking down the street as he said this, so she lifted her skirts and ran after him until she was marginally in front of him. With a sniff and airy toss of her hair that set her braid to shifting, she murmured, "I'm a year older than you, Squall; shouldn't I be looking into diapers for my young charges?"

"Diapers?"

A hand came to her mouth and a flush spread over her cheeks as she realised Squall had led them straight to the party just arrived in Traverse Town. They were looking at her curiously, a collection of people in ceremonial armour and with their heads tilted. A snort at her back was filled with barely restrained humour and to the left of the group; Yuffie was looking at her feet and trying hard to stop herself from laughing by biting her lip.

_Nice first impression, Aerith. Oh fiddlesticks, now what do I do!?_

"I was just… thinking about the orphanage we have to set up for those young children without parents who make it here," she managed in a smooth rush.

Yuffie gave her the covert thumbs up. At least the little Ninja thought she could still cover her mistakes fairly well. She let out an inaudible sigh, schooling her face to a sweet smile and folding her nervously fluttering hands as she turned to the people stood waiting for her attention.

"Welcome to Traverse Town. I'm Aerith; I'm here to help you find somewhere to stay and to provide whatever support we can for you in a tough time like this."

"Aerith," the one in the lead in armour she thought looked a little like overlapping scale on a fish or perhaps a dragon, he rolled her name around as if unfamiliar with it but pleased with how it sounded, "An unusual name. Aerith-sama, we are in your debt for being able to look after us at a time like this."

"As long as there is food, I am never to complain," the fat and jolly looking one said, towering above everyone else and packed into armour that barely accommodated his cheerful girth.

Aerith smiled, "Food is not a problem."

"Shhh," said a smaller one, elbowing the big one, "The captain is talking."

"Ping…" Growled an even –shorter- one, with a face like he was trying to chew a wasp.

"Anyway," the man who had to be the captain hurriedly put in before his group of men could continue to embarrass him any further – Aerith got the feeling it was a highly formal place that these men hailed from, "We are grateful, beyond belief."

She fought down a chuckle; it would ruin any kind of communication she was trying to establish with these scared and fragile newcomers. "It's not a problem, really. Squall, there's a house open down by the corner of the Second with basic means that was turned on recently. Can you help them to settle in there?"

He gave her a sour look.

She dimpled a smile, "Don't be a bore, Squall, or I will definitely hunt for diapers!"

He sighed and turned to the men, "Come with me. I'll take you," was the limit of his exchange before he started walking along with a loping stride towards the Second district. The group of men followed him, each one clamouring to have their place in line, but the shorter, slender one called Ping looked back at Aerith as they walked along.

Yuffie came to stand close by her, Aerith's eyes fixed on Ping's face before they slid down to the curious expression of the fourteen year old.

Yuffie tilted her head, "That's a girl."

"I know," Aerith replied, folding her arms, "But I also get the sense that if they knew she was a girl, she'd have trouble on her hands. Can I trust you to have a quiet word with her later on?"

"Of course, I'm Ninja after all," Yuffie gave her a grin that was inched towards mischief by the huge streak of dirt across her little nose.

"Ninja should also consider bathing…?"

"Baths are for people afraid of a little dirt, it won't kill me! Oh, so, if you're not gonna talk to that girl then what will you do?"

"I think I'll see the Merlin." She folded her hands before her, "Another world died, and it took just six months. How soon can we say the next one might be? I need some guidance and Merlin was the one who taught me the basics."

"That fuddy old guy who smells of rotten eggs?" Yuffie made a face, "I sometimes wonder if he's even on the same wavelength as the rest of us."

"Mmm… fuddy and confused, maybe. But at least he bathes," She winked.

The young Ninja made a sound of oppressed disgust low in her throat, threw her arms into the air and started towards the Second district, "Fine, fine, And FINE! I'll have a bath!"

Once she was gone, Aerith laughed a little into her hand and turned to look up again at the sky. All those stars were worlds, all those stars had people loving and living on them. Once her world had been a part of this beautiful constellation. Once, once upon a time, her world had been beautiful and she had been happy. She stayed there until the chill of the air turned her skin pebbled and Cid came to collect the fey girl from her dreams…

-------------------------------

The kid was getting annoying.

She bounced every single step and often jumped ahead of him so he was forced to stop, roll his eyes and try to walk around her. Proving to be a far more major distraction than what he had previously surmised, misdirection did nothing to sway her from her dogged path of questioning.

"So what about the Heart Guard," she asked for what had to be the tenth time.

"What about it?"

"You're not in it anymore."

"It exists as long as we continue to believe it does. Even if one person still believes in it."

"Oh," she was silent, and then threw in a new question, to mixed relief and horror of the plagued elder boy, "Say, Squall, what is a Heart Guard?"

"Leon," he corrected absently, "And it was someone who protected the lands and people."

"I know _that_, but what did it _meeeeean_ to be a Heart Guard?"

Squall shook his head, "Why does it bother you so much?"

"Huh?" Yuffie hadn't expected a question back and screwed up her nose into a set of wrinkles as she thought hard about her answers, "Well, I guess I wanted to know why you take so much pride in it… and why it makes Aerith so sad."

"…" He sighed again, "It means… to be willing to die. To be willing to give up everything, to give up your entire self to the cause of protection, of love and friendship."

"So why does that make Aerith sad?"

"Her brother was the Heart Knight."

"Sephiroth!" Yuffie exclaimed in delight, "He was so_ cool_, totally awe-"

"No, he **wasn't**," Squall snapped, and Yuffie stopped in her tracks as he did. His hands clenched, and why were they having this stupid conversation anyway!?

"Huh?"

"He wasn't **cool**. He wasn't **awesome** or anything you want to add to the list of **infantile** idol worship. Sephiroth… did cruel things and took even crueller measures."

"I don't understand?"

"He's tried to kill his sister before, out of jealousy, when he was driven insane by the need for power, to be better than everyone. Aerith never talks about it, neither does Tifa or Cloud… I never should have spoken of this."

"No, what happened?" Yuffie dogged his steps as he started forward again.

But Squall stayed silent all the way to the house, his expression dark and his thoughts fixated on the world that had been a world of cruelty and beauty, in one deadly mix…

----------------------------------

Hours later, after seeing the Merlin and coming home to a cool atmosphere at the house they shared, Aerith had retired to her room, decked out in red, gold and faint pinks. At the desk she used for writing, mainly into her diary to try and sort out her thoughts and feelings, she sat with lax hands on the pages of paper and a pen held forgotten. Her eyes shone with unshed tears and her head was a little bent.

All she could think of what was the Merlin had said to her…

…_hands shaking she pressed past the doorway that was to be magically activated by the fire in her blood, the fire she conjured from her hands._

_It left her shaking, it always did._

_She was always aware of the pain in her body, the pain in her heart as she conjured that dark art to the fore. She was always hunting in sick desperation for the green eyes in the fire…_

_The Merlin's house was a squat affair of a house with a roof that had seen better decades and the tiling worn away by the murky atmosphere in this strange cranny of the world that seemed otherwise up to date with technology. It presided over a lake that was calm with moving floating hunks of vegetation that would bear the weight of any person who used them to skip, chunk to chunk, to reach the Merlin._

_The cavern was lit with the sparkles of the rocks, ingrained with semi precious metals and maybe even small chunks of gems that glittered as the fragile light from inside the squat house glowed out._

_She drew her skirts up and made her way over the chunks of vegetation easily. Athlete, she wasn't, but she was at least agile and nimble enough to avoid taking a dunk in the cold water._

_A voice called out as she touched onto the island, "I'm waiting inside, dear."_

_No longer surprised by his foreknowledge that she was coming, she went to the cloth doorway that hung over a large crack in the side of the building and drew it aside, stooping so she could make it inside without cracking her head on the brick and tiles. Inside the house was sat a man among piles of books and bric-a-brac, a tea-set was quite happily bubbling away to itself and as ever, his owl friend Archimedes was blinking at her._

_Merlin was a man about her height, not particularly tall for a man, swathed in blue robes and a blue conical hat that at some point, had been bent by the tip. His hair was the colour of snow but his eyes were a stern blue, glittering as he looked upon her, but his smile was warm and welcoming._

"_My dear!" He said quite cheerily._

_Aerith lifted a finger to the owl and he came to settle on her shoulder, rubbing his moon-face into her cheek so that she felt warmed and took pains to hide the shaking of her hands. "Aerith," he hooted warmly._

"_Merlin, Archimedes," she said softly and forced a smile onto her frozen face, "It has been a while since I last visited, I am sorry."_

"_It's quite alright, come my dear, come and sit down – teapot, cups, tea for Aerith!"_

_She sat down, Archimedes still quite happy to stay curled up on her shoulder with his talons not pinching her in the slightest. When she had been but eight and apprenticed to Merlin for the basics and intermediary spells, the owl had fondly done such even then. Animals all loved her, especially those that were sentient, almost as if they knew about her connection to the world on a deeper level._

_The teacup slid before her and the sugar pot spooned two lumps in and flourished his spoon to stir it, then flumped towards Merlin and started spooning as much sugar as he could into the cup._

_Merlin, of course, wasn't paying attention. "A long time, yes, how is the world?"_

"…_there were… I mean…"_

_Archimedes hooted softly, "Take your time, it's alright."_

"_People came, from another world. They said their world was overrun by creatures of shadow and that it fell into the shadow and vanished…"_

"_They moved on then, it seems to have taken them some time to do so." Merlin sighed._

"_How much longer," she cried, "How much longer until another world dies? How much longer will this go on? Can anything at all be done!?"_

"_There is someone who might know. The King, at the Castle on the edge of all Worlds. I will send him a missive…"_

"_But," she exclaimed, "…but…"_

"_What can you do? I don't know, what can you do, Aerith?"_

_She shrank back under that blue gaze, feeling small. He always had this way of making her feel so foolish with her outbursts. He was her mentor until she had eventually surpassed him at fourteen and rose quickly to Heart Guard and HeartCaster and even with their gap in raw power; he still had the knowledge and wisdom over her._

_She closed her eyes._

_What could she do…?_

…_she could…_

Aerith scrubbed at her eyes.

Squall was training, Yuffie was training and what was she doing?

Forming welcoming committees and forgetting about everything that had made her so strong, that had made her hard and true in the eyes of the people. With quivering fingertips, she dropped the pen, but instead of it hitting the floor there was a gust of magical wind and it span right back into her hand with a clap.

That's right.

She was a magic user, she could use the mysteries she was a mistress of and hunt deeper than she had before to find out why this had all happened.

"Ansem," she said softly, "I'm sure it begins with King Ansem…"

"Aerith?"

She looked up from the desk, grateful her eyes were dry and turned the pen over in her hands. Squall was stood, without his jacket or shoes, but a tall and dark shadow in her doorway nonetheless.

"Squall," she said in surprise, "What is it?"

"Yuffie's started asking questions."

"Questions? Well, she is fourteen and you're a good looking boy…" she chuckled.

He blushed, he always took compliments so badly and then cleared his throat much to her amusement. But the words from his mouth drained all of the amusement right out of her. "Not those kinds of questions, she's started asking about the Heart Guard… about Sephiroth…"

"…Seph…" she said softly.

"I figured it was best to tell you."

"What did you tell her?"

"Nothing yet, she's too young to understand right now." He put his hand on the door handle, to close it, "And she's bathed and in bed, asleep. If you're going to stay up thinking away to yourself, I'll make some hot cocoa."

"…" she dropped the pen from numb hands and murmured, "Hot cocoa sounds good…"

_Anything,_ she thought to herself, _to take away the ice in my chest suddenly._

_Anything._

-------------------------------------

She dreamed that night:

"_Brother!" she screamed._

_He was looking at her, looking through her, hating her and loving her all at once._

_There were shapes in the fire but they blurred together so all she could see were cat green eyes as she clung desperately to consciousness. There were shouts, cries of war but all she could see were his eyes._

_Hating her and loving her, all at once._

"_**My** beloved Aerith," he murmured._

_But the world was made of fire… and all too soon he was gone and she slipped away from the world slowly, slowly… and gone…_


	3. The Girl Left Behind

_(( AN: Sorry it took so long - christmas time + sales means_ ARGH headache_! Thanks for bearing with me! ))_

**The Longest Journey**

_"Love drives men and women to impossible tasks  
__and their hearts to endure the harshest of times."  
__Radiant Garden – Inscription on the Tower of Stars_

**The Girl Left Behind**

There was a strange scent of grass and lemon that lingered just beyond her senses. With tired eyes and pinched mouth, she slowly sat up in the ragged remains of a sleep that seemed to have consumed her for the longest time.

Cracking her eyes open there was the sensation of light but it was too bright for her to open her eyes fully to, so instead she shaded her face with a hand as someone's voice touched her hearing and a face stared down at her with softly glowing eyes touched on by the light.

"Aerith?" she said dumbly into the light, wondering if this was how it felt to be dead.

Her body felt alien and heavy, filled to the brim with fatigue. Her hand fell down slowly, weakened by sleep. A voice that was speaking, she couldn't seem to register the words and weakly she kept staring into the brightness, waiting for sense to come even as her eyelids slowly came down. She fought the sleep; she fought it hard because she knew that she should be paying attention.

"Am I dead?" she whispered to the faceless voice. "Have you come to take me to heaven?"

"…sleep… long… very ill… wake up…"

"I'm not dead?" She was swaying and put hands out to support herself, and with a bitter lump rising in her throat, weak tears rose to her eyes, "You're not here to take me away from this pain?"

"…name… what's… name…?"

Crying and unable to say why, she fell weakly back as hands in surgical gloves supported her and swallowed a few times. Faces of loved ones, friends and companions flashed through her head and each and every one was swept just as quickly away in a flood of darkness. "Tifa," she managed before slowly fading into sleep once again, a restful, healing sleep, "…I'm called Tifa…"

----------------------------------

"_I made it, I made it!"_

_She looked up from where she was trying to mix together batter for a surprise cake as the door banged shut, the front door to the house she shared with her father. Alarmed by this, she quickly stowed the batter away and threw a towel over the ingredients, then hurried to the kitchen door to stall Aerith from seeing what she was doing._

_A hand brushed into her dark hair, as casually as she could manage, "Oh, made it where?"_

"_Tifa," laughed the girl as she came closer. "You know where."_

_They were of an age, Aerith only a year older but never using it against her, always treating Tifa like an equal. Aerith's hair was the colour of autumn leaves and her eyes as brilliant as polished emeralds. Tifa often felt like the shadow of sunshine, but if such comparisons bothered her, she never said so. They had been together ever since they were young enough to walk together, hand in hand. Aerith's mother and father had lived in a house not too far away, along with Sephiroth who was a fair bit older than both girls by about five years. He was already Heart Knight and like her brother, Aerith dreamed of joining the Heart Guard._

_It had been her dream ever since a fire had claimed the lives of her parents four years ago and she had come to live in a small house on the lands of the Lockhart family. Aerith knew that Tifa's family were well off, enough munny in the bank to start up seven massive corporations but like the comparison of sunshine and shadow, it was never mentioned. There was no need for it._

_And as Tifa had always wanted, Aerith spoke to –her- and not the bank balance, not 'Daddy' and certainly never fawned on her for any money._

_Tifa smiled even as her heart contracted with sympathy._

_Aerith hadn't exactly had it easy. Even between her tuition as a magician and a job at the local sea-salt ice cream parlour, she made just enough to buy food. Her clothes she mended and her shoes she took great care of and never once complained of cold or of missing out on those things that other girls their age took for granted. When they went out together, Tifa always and without fail tried to pay the tab or use her money for it, but each time, Aerith denied her and cheerfully said that she could manage._

_At thirteen, she was already in the Heart Guard accepted ranks._

_Tifa twisted her fingers together, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that she too would try to get into the Heart Guard, so she and her best friend could stay together always. After all it was where Aerith got excellent grades, Tifa excelled in fighting. They would always another member who was talented in physical arts… magicians were getting harder to find… some said that people were just ignoring their heritage of magic._

"_Congratulations," Tifa beamed._

"_I knew you'd be happy for me!" Aerith threw her arms about Tifa and hugged her so tightly that it brought tears to the taller girl's eyes._

"_Why wouldn't I be? It's your dream job."_

"_But…" Aerith drew back, envelope in hand that no doubt held the confirmation letter. "I…"_

"_It's alright, really. You'll come back and visit when you can, right?"_

"_Well of course!" The green eyes were touched with worry, "I'm just a little scared, and that's all."_

"_Scared?"_

"_Sephiroth will be there… and Cloud…"_

_Tifa folded her arms and snorted, looking to one side with spiky jealousy growing in her heart, "Well, Seph's your brother, there's no worry there and you know he dotes on you. As for Cloud…"_

"_Teef…" Aerith's voice was a whisper shy of being heart broken and unwillingly, Tifa looked back at her friend's face, the pleading green eyes that would forestall any comment about Cloud's reliability._

_She sighed and unlaced her arms, "…and Cloud will be Cloud…"_

"_Are you sure it's okay?"_

"_Of course, it's not my life, it's your life. I can't live it for you."_

_Aerith smiled and hugged her one last time, then hurried towards the door, "Well I'm happy then, knowing you support me! I have to go, Sephiroth's coming round to speak with me about the appointment and then he's gonna help me move all my stuff to Radiant Garden!"_

"_T-Today?" Tifa said in surprise._

"_No time like the present," she mimicked his deep voice, then laughed and opened the door, "You know what he's like. See ya soon, Teef!"_

_She stood there with fading elation into tears that came unbidden to her eyes as the door closed. The snick of the lock was a signal for her tears to start. She lifted her hands to her face and slid down the doorframe, sobbing into her cupped hands and hardly noticed that she had hit the floor with a bump. Tomorrow, the tomorrow that Aerith had always longed for had finally come._

_But with the coming, in its wake it was taking away her best friend, the person she loved most of all…_

_----------------------------------_

Shaking, covered in sweat, she came to a standstill with her arm outstretched and her palm flat, the borrowed hospital pyjamas hanging from her loosely for they had been designed for someone with a slightly larger bulk than what she had. Her legs ached and her shoulders burned and even as the air came in ragged chunks between her lips to her heaving lungs, she stared at the hand outstretched, then slowly lowered it.

A woman was standing where her hand pointed, with her hair drawn away from her face in a circlet of flowers that bloomed different colours of pink and purple, colours she had forgotten about and colours that always reminded her of her best friend. She sighed and dropped her arms. The woman was a doctor at the clinic on this strange island that backed out onto the wide sea. Sometimes she would see a little girl go running past with a blue dog in her arms, a dog that spoke of course, for things in the worlds that were connected were always strange.

"You shouldn't be moving just yet, your system sustained a terrible shock."

She sighed and looked to the side, annoyed that she could only sigh and keep sighing with frustration. "I can't lie down and pretend it didn't happen. Bad things occurred and I have to get out there and find Aerith, find Cloud for her!"

"Bad things?"

"Heartless, they're these creatures made of shadow…"

"Oh, we heard in a roundabout kind of way. It seems unreal," the doctor laughed, "But when you have an alien living among you, I suppose it's not so unreal after all!"

"Alien… right… so anyway, what I'm trying to say is-"

"You have a good recovery system," The doctor ran roughshod over her, the voice iron-like and commanding, "It ate up the entire virus that had infected your body. You must have been a strong fighter on your world."

Tifa narrowed her eyes, hands clenching as she muttered, "I wasn't the best; I wasn't even good enough to help those I care for."

"Oh?" The 'oh' was long and drawn out.

"It doesn't matter. I'm going to keep training."

As she lifted her hands again to continue with her practise and work her muscles into obeying once again with the lightning speed and strength they had before, the doctor asked out in cool tones that belied her warm appearance. "Well alright then, but one more question Miss Lockhart, who is this Aerith and Cloud?"

"…" She glanced at the doctor with her claret coloured eyes, narrowing them suspiciously.

"You asked for Aerith and then seemed to wish you were dead when you first woke up. It just bothered me, why you'd wish for such things and wish for someone to be there to take you 'away from the pain'?"

"Aerith is…"

She lowered her hands, tilting her head as the silence jarred on her ears.

"Yes?"

"…" Tifa smiled weakly, "Aerith is my best friend and I'd willingly die for her."

------------------------------------------

_The quiet ate away at her nerves._

_She sat there with her trembling hands clasped so no one could see her pain, so no one could mock her for being such a weak and silly young girl. But even though she had come this far, even thought she had fought all array of enemies and personal demons to make it into the coveted Heart Guard as a martial artist, securing her financial future and the approval of her father, she was still so young and her mind was a whirl of raw, pained emotions._

"_I brought you something." The soft voice called, accompanied by an unsure shuffle of feet behind the owner of the voice._

_Tifa looked up with red rimmed eyed that felt as though they should crack and weep blood for overuse of her tear ducts. In the doorway, gowned in pink and pale cream, was her childhood friend with her hair drawn securely away from her face to leave only wispy bangs adorning the face of beauty. Her dark eyes shifted from Aerith to the shadows of two boys that both girls were friendly with, if not marginally close enough to work with on a daily basis; Cloud Strife, a kid who had briefly moved into their sleepy town and then out of it, headed towards the capital Radiant Garden, and Squall Leonhart, a young man who had trouble getting the words out and making others understand exactly how he felt._

_Tifa looked away so her hair hid her face, "I don't want any mock sympathy. You can all come and have a laugh later."_

"_Tifa!" Aerith's voice was pained, "How could you say such a thing?"_

"_She's just hurting right now," Squall said, "She doesn't know what she's saying."_

_Tifa narrowed her eyes. She knew she meant it directly to only one member of their group present and that was Cloud. She really hated him. There was a strange deficit in their language for words that correlated directly to feeling of loathing or repugnance. She knew why she felt this stupid way, for the longest time Aerith had been hers and hers alone. Now that they were growing up and Aerith, the magical and perfectly beautiful childhood friend, was beginning to notice boys. Only a year behind her, Tifa had also noticed boys and then just 'hmphed' and folded her arms._

_Boys had the maturity of a babe in swaddling as far as she cared, and even worse, Cloud never once paid Aerith back the remotest bit of attention as far as Tifa could see. It made her want to scream! Her best friend deserved so much better, a prince or a king! She sometimes wished she could find a pair of brothers who were princes so they could marry either and then never be parted and they would treat the fragile magi well._

_No, instead Aerith had thrown common sense from her head and gone following after Cloud like some love struck puppy and all in all, it made Tifa want to scream. She didn't mind admitting to herself that if such things didn't conflict with her sworn duty as Heart Guard, she would happily leave Cloud to die, freeing up her best friends heart. Then she would reason, how upset and broken hearted Aerith would be…_

_She sighed._

_A flower was pressed under her nose and in alarm; she automatically reeled back as far as she could on her seat, accompanied by the silvery sound of laughter. She focused on the bloom out of embarrassment; it was a wonderful shade of plum red, almost the same shade as her eyes._

"_Guys, give us a moment?"_

_Tifa glanced across at the two boys who looked at Aerith's commanding tone, then slowly moved away, closing the door after them. Squall, she noticed with some relief, actually did what Aerith said, instead of Cloud who slouched miserably away. What a wet rag he was._

_She hoped fervently that she never became like him._

"_Thank you," she said shortly, taking the flower in her hands._

"_You have to love it and take care of it," Aerith said, sitting down next to her._

_The close contact was welcome after weeks spent apart because as the highest ranked Magi and soon to be announced Heartcaster, Aerith had been sent away on many missions with her brother and a few specialised ninja Heart Guard. Tifa sighed inwardly, feeling tears trembling on the inside of her soul. She would not cry!_

"_I'm sorry to hear about what happened. I loved your father, as if… well, I like to think if my father had watched me grow up, then he would have been as kind as yours."_

_A cold tear slid down Tifa's cheek._

_Her father, a kind and generous man, unstinting in his affections for Tifa or her best friend. He had been as bad as she was in some ways, always trying to pay for Aerith and always, kindly, being rebuffed by the gentle girl. His fortune had been far vaster than anything Tifa had imagined, not that such things set greed in her heart, but only made her feel sadder still. Her father had managed the legendary Lockhart fortunes; she hadn't the vaguest head for business. Suddenly, here she was, the sole Heiress to that munny and not a clue in the world about what to do or how to go about it._

_She had been told it was quick._

_There had been a freak storm in their town and whilst trying to chivvy people into taking shelter in the sturdy and massive Lockhart mansion, he had spotted a straggling mother with her child. Catapulting himself into action, he had run to fetch her, only to have a broken spar of timber plunge itself into his chest, killing him almost instantly._

_Tifa had been assured the woman and child both survived the terrible storm. The funeral had been lavish, almost obscene with the amount of people who came to see her father laid to rest, interred in the family mausoleum where her ancestors and her beloved mother lay at peace. She had worn black and a veil over her face, alone at the proceedings. No cousins, no nephews or even uncles or aunts. There was only her, now. So, watching him vanish from sight, she cried silently and without moving her frozen facial muscles._

_Her father, a real hero._

_After all, weren't heroes the ones who died for their causes, to protect people?_

"_He was… a great man. I have impossible shoes to fill."_

"_Tifa?"_

"_I'm probably going to have to leave the Heart Guard to manage finances and businesses that our family took care of."_

"…_Why not… go and ask the King?"_

"_What?!"_

"_Well," Aerith leaned back, "He is the King after all. King Ansem would know how to help you manage it all. After all, your family helped design the whole mainframe for Radiant Garden, the masonry, the food supplies, the Gummi Array, all of it. You have so many interests in our world, that to let it all fall apart would be bad economically for us all. I'm sure he realises this and would do anything he could to help you afloat as well as the businesses?"_

"_Aerith," she gasped, "You're a genius!"_

"_Not really," the girl laughed, blushing._

"_No, really! I've spent ages trying to squeeze an idea out of my brain about this, but you've just handed me the solution!" She stood up, using the motion to banish her tears and with her back to her friend, in the small cramped room she called her own at the barracks on the outskirts of Radiant Garden, not her apartment where she usually stayed and shared with the others, their apartments below and above hers. She smacked a hand into the palm of the other, the balled up fist making a resounding noise, a good noise and above all, a real noise._

"_Tifa, please," Aerith cried and suddenly there were arms about her neck, cold and slim arms that clung with all their might, a face pressed between her shoulder blades and a voice broken with sympathy. "You can cry, it's alright to cry, you know?"_

"…_Aerith…" she said softly, hands lowering to her sides._

"_And when you want to cry, don't shut me out! I want to know, aren't we best friends? Didn't we always used to tell each other our secrets? So tell me how you feel, Tifa, and I'll try and to make it rainbows and sunshine again, for you, I swear it, I promise it, just don't shut me out…"_

"…" _She smiled against the feel of her friend against her back, but dry eyed whispered in return, "I promise."_

_----------------------------------------_

The beach was quiet this time of night, all the people were in bed and the bonfires they danced and played around had faded into the embers that scuttled away from the sharp ocean winds, driving them inward.

Cross legged on the beach with her head turned up so she could see the only light in the black of the night, the far away stars that burned and the pregnant shape of the full moon, bellying over the sky and casting soft white light over her in a flood of yesterdays and memories. The ocean washed in and out from the shore in repetitive motions, sometimes whispering names and songs she thought she had forgotten the music to.

Once, she had thought she might be a piano player, she was as gifted in music as she was in putting a fist through wood and screaming her anger at the world. But as gifted as she was, she never really felt the hollow thrum of the music, she never wished to sit at the piano and tinkle ivories so people could hear and marvel her talent, but go away from her and forget the music she doused their fiery souls with from her own brilliant heart.

Instead she fought, because it was the best that she could do. Because unlike other girls of her age, Tifa had never been the least bit interested in boys, love or any of those things that consume young girls endlessly…

For Tifa, there was herself and her best friend and all the fun they could have together, growing up and discovering the world and where it would take them.

Where were they all now?

Months had passed since she passed out and even she didn't fully recall the events that had lead to her coming to this strange world, filled with familiar and as yet, unfamiliar things.

There was the moment when she had pushed her best friend away and shut the door from the outside, telling her with bravado that she would find Cloud, that she would bring back the sunshine for her best friend and she could be the lonely, following shadow again and that she really didn't mind it. Trying to tell her everything with a look as the door closed forever between them, pretending that she didn't hear the completely heartbroken wail that had filtered through the doors and attacked her heart, made it wring and contract with a strange pain.

There had been Heartless everywhere as she had ran down those winding stairs from the Gummi dock and Array, leaving behind the person she loved best and hoping she could do all the wonders she had promised. But as she had scoured Radiant Garden, growing more exhausted with each passing attack and wave of monsters made of shadow, she had seen not one single sign of Cloud in their world.

Then she had fainted atop the pedestal to the Tower of Stars, the seat of all Magi power in the Heart Guard. If she hadn't found Cloud, she had decided to try and save something of her world, something that Aerith could connect to and use.

There had been no visions of the others, no Quistis or any sight of Barrett. There were hints that their old sword master and battle director Auron had died, the smears of blood and the fallen clinch of his well oiled and beloved sword, lying half thrust into the very stone with what could have only been an incredible feat of strength.

Her last vision had been of the ship bearing her best friend away, vanishing into the sky.

Then as black feathers clouded in with the darkness, she fell mercifully unconscious.

…then there was light and she had prayed for pain of failure, the pain of being alone to end and take her away, bear her somewhere else other than here, to somewhere she could start again and make it up to her best friend for being so useless when she had been needed the most.

There had been that other time too…

…the other time…

Tifa knit her brows, lying down on the sand with her arms above her head, wearing her customary black as she had done ever since she could recall. She was a shadow waiting for her sunshine to come back and make it all alright, like she had always managed to do somehow, like she always would do wherever she was.

"I wonder, do you remember me, or am I just a memory now, of a life you left behind you?" She said to the stars, looking for a stairway from this world.

Tears filled her eyes, "…and do you still remember all the pain?"

-------------------------------------

…_her hand gripped the arm of Auron tightly, trying to push him away so she could get through the rubble, the fire raging hot around them, so hot that it appeared to burn the very stones beneath her feet and the very stones that world was built of, houses, lives, all of them burning away._

_In the circle of the madness, the younger and the elder looked upon each other with eyes of power, shining brightly in the inferno. A wind was drawn about the younger and her face marked with serenity, calm and certainty. The elder face was impassive as it looked down, the green eyes filmed with the tang of magic as he whispered with lips illuminated by the blaze, "**My** beloved Aerith."_

_The scream of her best friend was a knife into her heart, "**Brother!**"_

_But there was blood._

_There was blood and the scream and her world was burning._

_And with arms holding her back, she could do nothing but watch helplessly… nothing…_


	4. Forsake Me Not

_(( Gomen Nasai! I have been having a rough time of it, life wise, so thanks for bearing with me!!!))_

**The Longest Journey**

_Let no shadows burden you,  
__Life itself is a burden heavy enough  
__For anyone  
__-Kisaragi Clan Saying_

**Part Four: Forsake Me Not**

He no longer slept.

The act of sleeping took its toll upon him when he closed his eyes against the faded world and instead of clarity, there would be confusion and dismay. He feared that were he to open his eyes for long enough, tears would come forth and soon he would be crying, soon he would be mourning for everything he had failed and left behind.

The pain in his shoulder was a reminder that he lived, the pain in his body wracked him so and curled on the smooth stone ground he could only shiver and curse his own name, curse himself for being such a useless fool.

He lay there, waiting to die.

"Will you forsake me too?" He croaked of the shadows around him and listened to their harsh mocking laughter, the caw-caw of a crow at evening that jibes at the day ending. They whirled around him when he moved his eyes to see, the grit and salt stinging him.

Perhaps he was already dead and this was his limbo, left here to wonder at his fate forever. But the ground was cold and he could feel the minute brush of unnaturally smooth grain in the stone on his skin, so he shivered, because shivering meant that he was alive and there was always something to go on for. His clothes a tattered ruin from his shoulders and in their ruined splendour he sat in state.

It was then that he came to him and whispered his name, the voice he could not forgot and the voice he wished he could forget forever.

"Will you lie there?"

"…"

"Will you stay there, when she is lost out there where I could find her at any moment?"

"…"

"Will you never speak her name again? So this is how it ends, that you forget them all, that you pretend it never happened."

"I…" he said with a throat run dry of words, the shadows dancing. A hand that cupped his chin creaked in black leather, he saw that much through tired and gritty eyes, but even as the cupping hand commanded him to look upward with violent force, he didn't lift his eyes. He didn't have to, in order to know that the man above him was the man of his nightmares and dreams, once upon a distant time, when he had been someone.

"Pathetic," the hand dropped his chin and he hung his head, blond hair grown overlong shadowing his face, a face made gaunt and hollow through hours of lying inert and hardly eating.

"…"

"So this is what she dreamed of endlessly, someone who is little more than an immature runt."

_She… dreamed of me?_

"I'll give her your regards…" the smooth voice insinuated.

"Touch her… one hair… will kill you," he rasped finally, looking up. But into the mocking darkness there fled only his laughter.

"Come and find me then…"

As he was left with the shadows again, his weak eyes could make out the image of a sword, burly in design, stuck point down into the hewn stone. Bandages of peace fluttered dead around it and he knew that his hand should fit that handle. It seemed to take him hours of constant effort that eventually yielded the muscle tone needed for him to crawl slowly over the floor to the sword.

As it felt right, he curled his hand about the handle and felt the cold metal on his bruised skin as the shadows cavorted and chortled about him. The handle was right.

"Cloud Strife," he rasped, "…don't… don't you forget it…"

And with his hand curled still about the handle of the sword, he passed out against the unyielding metal in dreams of a far more sedated darkness altogether…

--------------------------

"_You're always getting into such horrible scrapes."_

_Her voice was light, like the lightness of air or perhaps sunlight and it washed over him pleasantly, but the face was bowed away from him and he couldn't clearly make her features out in the haze of stinging pain. His leg that he had injured in a stupid climbing accent was bent at the knee as she tended to him. It seemed like she was always doing that and like a shadow with a bad temper, the slightly younger girl hung back, always following and always glaring at him like she expected him to grow a second head._

_He glanced about sheepishly, not entirely sure of what he should be saying to her in a situation like this and automatically one hand crept up to fuzz his hair, putting all of his remaining weight on his other arm. "Yeah…" he managed finally. How lame was he?_

"_That's alright; I don't mind looking after you. It's getting to be kind of fun, seeing what new injury you can bring to me each day, Cloud."_

_She was laughing and he felt his cheeks heat ever so slightly, especially as at that point in time, a man in dark colours paused by the archway into the gardens where he was being tended, lifting his brows at the laughter. That was all he needed, for their Captain to see him in this state._

_He looked to the side to avoid making eye contact, trying to ignore the blush in the hope that it would vanish from his face._

"_How is the patient?" He asked of the two girls, coming over from the archway. The gardens were set in a circular pattern of wheels in wheels of grass and flowers, with various walls and the like for training purposes, one of which he had fallen from and managed to hurt his leg badly enough to seek the aid of their Heartcaster. His helmet for safety lay in the grass, an overturned beetle springing to his mind vividly._

"_Awkward," huffed the taller of the two girls, garbed in black much like the Heart Knight was, her arms folded and her eyes narrowed, "And making a nuisance of his self as always."_

"…" _Cloud glared right back at her; two could play at that kind of game._

"_Really, really," The girl at his knee laughed, waving a hand dismissively, "You two honestly don't know when to quit. He's not a bother, really brother."_

"_Are you sure, I wouldn't want him to strain your resources."_

"_I am really sure. If I don't have patients to practise my healing arts on, then how can I get stronger in them, right?"_

_The Heart Knight's eyes were flat discs of brilliant turquoise, peering down at the girl who tended to his knee and if Cloud had not paid so much attention, he would have sworn that there was jealousy in those eyes. But why would he be jealous of the frail and cheerful girl who made all his pain vanish in a single wave of her magical hand?_

"_I see, well then. Sister, I wish to see you this weekend."_

"_This weekend? But, I'm going away with Tifa to see the beaches; I hear they are so pretty at this time of the year."_

"_Then as soon as you can after that," his eyes narrowed across at the taller girl, Tifa, who seemed a bit perturbed to have his full attention, however spite filled the glance might be._

"_Of course I will."_

_He nodded then turned and left through the archway he had come in through, white-silver hair flowing after him in mimicry of the cape he wore with effortless ease. Cloud watched him go silently._

"_Pfft," Tifa snorted finally, "He thinks he owns you sometimes, I swear it."_

"_He's just concerned," the smaller of the two girls said, putting her cool and gentle hands to his pained wounds and the flow of healing magic starting up again with gentle insistence. "I am his only family now after all."_

"…"

"_You think so too, don't you Cloud?"_

_He didn't have an answer for her and those piercing green eyes that saw through all his weak defences. He didn't know how to best answer her and afraid of the words that clogged up his heart, he looked away sullenly._

"…" _she lowered her green eyes and wordlessly kept healing his wound as the dark eyes of Tifa bored into the back of his blond head with seething anger._

_He couldn't make them understand that he wanted to say so many things, but he just had such a hard time articulating them. Maybe it was easy for them to be open and say things, but for Cloud Strife, he had always choked on the words, he had never had the right words at his disposal ever._

_He never said thank you, he only held the words in his heart as Tifa led away the girl in pink, hair swinging about her in the sunshine and the flowers. So instead he engraved them on the weak flesh and swore when he was not so weak, he would say them to her._

_To Aerith._

_------------------------------_

He followed the path into the shadows as best he could, gripping his side and wincing at every other step, jolting his body to fits of agony and in the hand that was useful, the sword was held, grating on the stone as it trailed uselessly after him. The darkness didn't pull away from him, but neither did it try to suffocate him either, simply watching in silence as he made his way further into the darkness, chasing the man who had yanked his head about and sneered down at him.

He didn't pause to question his actions, unaware that his steps were leading him to vats of light that glowed eerily to the side of the suspended bridge of rock, floating high above the water, swirling endlessly beneath.

His blue eyes looked down, adjusting to the sudden light with a weak response and seeing only that continual swirling of green. It was as if it was trying to suck his very soul out, through the eyes that peered down upon it in confusion, mild confusion.

"What is this place?" He muttered, but turned without waiting for an answer.

His steps grew ever unsteady and the sword sometimes caught with either bladed edge or the ribbons of bandages, fluttering from the blade in ghost like hands, grasping at rocks as he went past. His eyes felt dead and his body was finally close to giving up when he stumbled and came to rest, lying face down before a set of doors inscribed with a mazelike design.

He peered up at it through the blond spikes of his haircut, trying to make out the shapes and words, but he didn't recognise them at all. So he shut his eyes and rested there in the shallow pit, his breathing weak and his body tired beyond endurance.

When he woke, the green glow was still there, as green as the eyes of the man in his dreams, as green as the eyes of the girl who had healed him with her gentle and patient hands. Shaken alert by the glow, he struggled to his knees very slowly, the dull thudding ache of pain eating away at him still.

"…why won't it stop hurting…" he groaned, "Am I that weak?"

Then, as he tilted his head back slowly, "…Aerith… I'll never make it to say those words, not like this."

"Words? Hmmm, well would you look at this, what a prize catch…"

The voice was mellow and almost humorous in tone, completely out of setting with the place that dawned broken and decaying around him, and so surprised was he that he turned to look over his shoulder at the man who stood there, illuminated by the harsh glow of the pits.

He was taller than anyone he had seen so far, including the Heart Knight. His skin was pale blue and his grin was dark, lighting up a gaunt face. To top it off, his hair writhed as if made from fire itself and danced, waiting for a puff of air to blow it out and make him as bald as an egg. His clothes were a strange robe of black tied at the waist and his hands were spindly fingered, but expressive, as one came up to tap his chin.

"I have to say, been a while since I've seen anyone willingly come down here and collapse by my door… what's up, kid?"

"Kid?" Cloud stared at him with hard blue eyes, tightening his grip on the handle of the large sword and hearing the hilt creak in response, "I'm not a kid."

"Sure, sure, whatever helps you to sleep at night… so seriously, what brings you all the way down here, to my domain? Doorstep cookie sales?"

"…are you always this irritating?"

"Aren't you just overflowing with sympathy and joy?" the man leaned down to peer at him, much in the way that a scientist would lean in to peer at their most recent test subject. "The names Hades and you look like hell kid."

He paused, as if waiting for Cloud to crack a smile.

Cloud didn't even bother looking at him.

"Responsive." Hades, as he called himself, straightened back up, "You look awful, kiddo. Come on, lets get you sorted and you can tell me all about why you just had to come crawling to see the God of the Underworld."

That caught on Cloud's ears and he looked up through the heavy blond fringe, soiled and lank as it was. "Underworld?"

"Afterlife, not-quite-heaven, Hell, God of the Dead, yadda yadda yadda… what, you want the guided tour. Pain, Panic!"

At his voice, two strange looking creatures came rushing up, one bulbous and red and the other looking thin, reedy and with about as much nerve as a glass of water. The saluted the tall being Hades, and then turned their yellow eyes to him. He stared back dully. "…what are those?"

"Underlings, minions, meatshields, whatever. You two get this kid cleaned up and fixed. You got that? I smell a deal in the works."

"…a deal…"

"You got somewhere to be, don't you? Something to do? Then why don't you let me help you… if you help me…"

"Something for something," Cloud repeated tonelessly as the pair of demonic creatures chivvied him to his feet. "I see."

"…something…for something…"

---------------------------------------

"_What is your problem?"_

_The girl glared back at him as he said those words, her dark eyes snapping with anger and her whole frame on the verge of some violence or flight. Dark hair shimmered as she crouched down in the dark of the wood by him, the rest of their squad spread out as they were on a mission to capture a dangerous and wayward magic user. There had been the distinct possibility that he was raising corpses and using them as soulless but effective tools to hamper the abilities of magic users, so they had been badgered into joining the Heartcaster and two elemental specialists on the trip. Tifa, the girl who was glaring at him angrily, was the quickest on her feet and Cloud had the raw strength._

_He glared right back, a hand stuck firmly against the hilt of the slightly slenderer sword than he was used to carrying, but a single part of a multiform sword that he taken to using. It was imbued with special properties that helped to disrupt the magical system inside the corpse, sort of like severing the ties between caster and object._

"_You're my problem," she hissed back._

_It was so unexpected that he almost reeled back from those words, staring at her in confusion even as tears welled up in her dark eyes and she looked away, ashamed suddenly that she had even given voice to it._

"_How the hell am I your problem?"_

"_Not my problem really, but hers and everything she feels, I feel and I bleed for."_

"_Her?"_

_Her dark eyes were tinged with a strange pity, looking up at him with a vague flicker of a glance, "You don't know?"_

"…_I honestly don't know what you're talking about."_

"_Lies," she exploded in a hushed spitting of words, "Lies, god, how can you not know!?"_

"…_know what?"_

"_We've all grown up together and you honestly don't know? You haven't noticed anything? How dense are you, Cloud Strife?"_

"_Tifa…"_

"_It doesn't matter, alright, forget that I said anything. You just… just learn, alright? You have to start listening to the world and what's being said." The pale face turned back to looking forward, "Cause if you don't, people are going to get hurt, in more ways than one."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Deep inside, where it often hurts the most and it's hardest to heal. You'll end up wounding people there, you'll hurt her there and what she feels…" The dark eyes closed in pain briefly and she whispered harshly, "But damn, you're really an idiot, you know that?"_

"…"

"_Just say thank you, just once to her. For crying out loud, why you had to make everything so difficult… why did it have to be you…?"_

"…" _Unable to find an answer for those rhetorical questions, he looked back at the open ground between the bushes, where the moonlight struck between the branches and wished she could stop talking, wished he knew what to say._

_He was always a bit like that, a little bit slow when it came to understanding himself and other people. But he knew they expected so much from him, and knew more than anything, he found it increasingly hard to deliver the words that got stuck in his throat on an alarmingly regular basis._

_When the morning came, she was pulling away from the body into the gentle touch of her friend, green eyes saddened but knowing, looking past Tifa to the sunny skies and hunting out her own answers. The tears that marked the faces around him were a mystery to him and he found himself wondering, why they were crying… why could they cry so easily?_

_He never had those kinds of answers, only strange confusion._

_Why was that?_

_-------------------------------------------_

"It's a little job really, shouldn't be any problem for you, staying here and getting healthy again, stronger even. I'll make you a deal, you fix the kid and I'll put you back together, good as new, better even."

He looked at the hand, spread fingered towards him and hinting darkly at something, but his mind struggled to get a grip on it. "You want me to make a deal with the God of the Dead?"

"You got any better plans, Sparky?"

"…"

"If I make you one last concession then… how about…" Hades rubbed his chin and then smiled, showing his pointy teeth in a disturbing fashion, "…I give you, the one thing you want more than anything else."

"…which is?"

"An answer, your light."

"My…light…"

What was his light anyway? He had lost it so long ago in the swell of darkness, pulled away and to pieces by the tide of creatures foul and best left unknown. He stared down at himself. What a mess he was, what a horrible collusion of wishes and dreams and impotent strength that had all come together to make up a mockery of a man like he. He wanted those answers, he wanted to get out of here and find the Heartcaster before her brother did something to her, before he didn't say those words.

"…I'll do it."

"A deal?"

"A deal, Hades."

He took the massive hand, feeling spider-like fingers grasp over his and clench tightly. The deal took the form of a strange twist to his body, a jolt of magic that was neither friendly nor unfriendly but just cold into his heart. He didn't bother flinching, that was a waste of his time and effort. Instead he coolly waited for the sensation to pass.

"Perfect," muttered Hades, letting go eventually, "Everything is slowly falling into place."

"…" Cloud looked away and to where his sword was stuck, point down into the gritty ground with the peace-bond bandages left in tatters about it. He reminded himself to rewind those strips of cloth about it, to shelter the blade from the world until he had true reason to set the edge again.

Against him.

_Sephiroth._

There would be no running away for him now; this was all that was left for him to do. To hunt him down and take his revenge, his violent and blind revenge that would free up his past and those pasts of everyone else who had ever been part of the Heart Guard. Then the souls that had been left behind could sleep peacefully.

It seemed perfect.

"…I'm sorry," he murmured quietly.

"Eh, eh?" Hades asked, swinging back to look at him.

"Nothing."

"Alright, alright… well, go down to the lab, Pain and Panic will be there… time to get started… Soldier."

"…"

Somehow, the name fit… somehow...

-------------------------------------------

_He didn't know how he'd come to fall there, or why the fire was raging so hotly in this place, but the burning pain he felt was excruciating, tearing him up from the inside and the heat stole the water from his tears too quickly, so only salt marked his cheeks._

"_Sephiroth!" he screamed and ran at him, jumping the body of his friend, blade cutting around to swipe at the madman._

_But ti clanged off him, falling uselessly short and with a twist of the long slender blade that the Heart Knight was never without, it was deflected away and thrown to the side. He watched it fall far away in dismay, turning his pained blue eyes back to the man who simply smirked._

_It came around with a grace too quick for him to follow and pierced him through the left shoulder. He reeled back, crying out in agony and the stabbing jolts of magic imbued into the blade._

_There was blood._

_He didn't know how long it took him to fall, but to him it seemed like forever until his bones hit the floor and felt the heat of the fire through the cracked tiles._

"_Useless," muttered the older man._

_His vision faded in and out, he could make out shapes and suddenly someone was there beside him, calling his name anxiously._

"…_A…Aerith…" he whispered._

"_Cloud… Cloud!" she cried out, cool hands in comparison to the inferno about them, soothing his hurts with the familiar tingle and welcome touch. He drifted towards the darkness._

_Someone screamed._

"_**My** beloved Aerith," he heard Sephiroth whisper, his voice deeply implying ownership and helpless, hopeless love._

…_and her voice was the sweet bell, ringing out with pain into the night, "**Brother**!!!"_

…_and mercifully… nothing…_


	5. Memory of a Memory

_(( A/N: I'm sorry about the long absence, lots of bad things happening. I tried to make it a decent update to get back into the swing after writing a one-shot How to Save a Life. R'n'R **would** be lovely and help me continue in writing! Thank you all my reviewers so far! ))_

* * *

**The Longest Journey**

_The window is open  
__But the world it looks upon  
__Is different every day_

_Inscription on the First Window of Light – Radiant Garden_

**Part Five: A Memory of a Memory**

She curled the hair about a lazy finger and watched them both from under lidded eyes, pretending she was asleep. The years had crept by so slowly, with them maturing in different ways. What the years had given to those two, she couldn't say for sure, but what it had given to Yuffie, the proud Utai ninja princess, was a certain sense of dignity. Perhaps dignity was not the right word for it. She knew, by now, her place in the world and she also knew that some things you simply could not fight against.

This was, she could only assume, her deep source of amusement when she watched them together, pretending like there was nothing at all wrong with the world: milky tea and sugar-sweet smiles. Would you like a biscuit to wash the white lies down with?

She hadn't grown much, Yuffie reflected with a kind of morose acceptance. No Utai ever seemed to grow particularly bulky or tall, just slightly less than average height and to a person, skinny. Not slender, not slim, but skinny, like a beanpole. Her hair was still shorn to her jaw and still the dark of inky night but her eyes, whilst able to convey sneaky mischievousness were also tempered with bitter acceptance.

Acceptance however, did not equate with defeat in Yuffie's mind. No. Acceptance was simply a way of saying: "This is how things are now. I cannot do much to change it right now, so instead of throwing a royal tantrum, I shall nod and smile and accept it. Tomorrow, it might be different and I also accept that."

Together on a rare day like today, all three were in the square by the café. Aerith was quietly trying to eat her cake as Leon jibed at her gently with those subtle and scathing remarks he had grown fond of during their exile. Yuffie sat not too far away, with a whole table to herself to sprawl her legs atop of. It wasn't as if she was obstructing customers, it was quiet outside on the cobble streets, they sat on their small iron wrought table and chairs under the jutting balcony. The few people who did walk past waved to them.

It was quiet because a star had gone out the night before.

Aerith often watched the skies, looking for her own answers there, looking for her way to accept the world as it stood now: and it was there she had seen the star flicker, flutter and wither into nothing. There was no sound, no fanfare, no backwash of light. Only the soft cry of the fey girl as she crumpled to the deck, hands lifting to touch her face and in trembling, anguished tones crying out: "They are screaming."

They: being the people who had lived upon the world that had just vanished from this existence. They were gone now and only their single massive shout of agony had reached but one person, light years away. Aerith was that _kind_ of special.

Yuffie didn't envy her one single bit.

So, she mused, Aerith can keep looking at the stars and Leon can keep right on her by side like a silent statue but she was already looking for a way out, to fight them. Leon trained her every day, as best he could, put fire into her heart for revenge, the Ninja code she tried to live true to every day. But it was a one-girl war it felt like sometimes. And of course, there were those things that neither one would tell her.

She knew they still thought about it, she knew it was there and if she ever had the nerve to ask properly when Aerith was in the right frame of mind, she would explain it all to her. Aerith was that kind of person.

From what Yuffie had pieced together from snatched fragments of conversations, eavesdropping shamelessly and the one outburst Leon had sputtered with years back, she had concluded this much: The incident that no one wanted to talk about was directly connected to Aerith's brother.

Aerith's brother, Sephiroth.

Sephiroth, who had once been the Heart Knight of Radiant Garden…

Radiant Garden, a world malformed and turned into a dark shade of what it had once been, the glory transfixed and torn away, replaced with nothingness.

Yuffie had become many things over the years between escaping the madness at Radiant Garden to the young woman she was now, and one of the few talents she so stringently kept to herself was her keen awareness. She was aware of more things than either of her two guardians could ever realise. For instance, she was very much aware of the way in which Leon looked at Aerith. She was also aware that Aerith was a better actress than they gave her credit for, hiding her tears when she thought no one was watching but never really hiding the salt stains from tears on her handkerchief.

"Don't you want some cake?" The elder girl asked suddenly, looking up from her own white frosted slice, garnished heavily with strawberries.

"Yuffie and cake? It would only go directly to her hips."

"Leon, be nice."

"Yeah, Squall, be nice," Yuffie grinned, knowing just how to rub him up the wrong way. She did it all the time. She enjoyed the 'younger sister' relationship she shared with the elder two far too much to let it simply stagnate.

"That's Leon."

"What is; the cake?"

"Yuffie Kisaragi," he sputtered, putting his drink down.

Aerith shook her head, cutting another piece of cake with the side of her fork, "Honestly, I should throw you both into a small cramped space and wait for the screeching and fighting to stop."

"You honestly believe it would?" Yuffie looked surprised.

"Hmmm," Aerith bit on the chunk of cake and then after swallowing, replied, "Well no, but the blood pooling from under the door would mean at least a bit of peace and quiet, eh?"

"Harsh." Leon scowled.

"Yikes, Rissy, you got scary," she laughed.

The elder girl just smiled and bit onto some more cake, oblivious to the sidelong look of Leon. Yuffie smirked inwardly. It was like watching a play sometimes, it really was. But as she was aware and so was Leon, probably very acutely, Aerith's head was filled with room for two people at the top spot. Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart. Aerith was like that.

And Yuffie didn't envy her, not **one** bit.

* * *

A day or so later, the girl in question was sat on a bed with her hands folded in her lap, staring quietly at the small figure who was speaking to her, head moving up and down with nods and then sometimes twisting and tilting with the motions of someone asking questions, always accompanied with her extravagant hand gestures. The small figure was only three feet high, maybe a few inches if Yuffie had to guess, but there was something positively attention grabbing about him, in the dark cape and the large ears, the kind eyes and the way he paid attention without seeming to.

Leon admonished her that it was wrong, terribly wrong of her to eavesdrop and abuse the ninja talents she was gifted with in such a larcenous way. Of course, Yuffie noted with a smug smile, he didn't exactly tear her off the wall where the small drilled hole was either to stop her from watching, stop her sharp ears from picking up the flow of the conversation between two people with what appeared to be, equal wisdom in the way of these things.

"Your Majesty, I had no idea," Aerith's voice carried well despite being as quiet and soft as usual. Yuffie had always wanted to learn that trick, of projecting her voice so it could appear commanding even when it wasn't raised in anger.

"You saw the stars though, right?" The small guy, a king of some sort not that Yuffie ever remembered a king so short from even their own world, had a high pitched voice but it was tempered with some of his regal bearing. "Going out, one by one?"

"Yes, we saw them, each night. I had hoped that they would keep to an even pace, but two within the last six months! I have no idea what to think anymore."

"There is an organised party behind this, I know it. I cannot do much for you the way I am though. I am sorry."

"It's alright, really. We can work it through, we're survivors."

"I thought as much. I do have one thing that I can give to you, to set you on the right track."

There was a rustle and Yuffie strained against the wall to see what was passed from hand to hand, King to Heartcaster. It was a page of paper with a single edge that seemed torn, as it ripped from a book of sorts and the writing on it was in a spiders scrawl, made blurry by the distance. Even her eyes weren't that good!

"What is th-oh!"

"You're very perceptive."

"It has… the feel of him still, in the paper."

"He always said that his Heartcaster was one of the most talented young mages he had ever witnessed, right before your world fell."

"His Majesty said that?" There was a soft pause, "You knew our King?"

"Ansem was a wise and just ruler, he saw beyond the veil of doubt and into worlds that few people dare to brave. He was aware of hearts and how they connect, how they will always be together."

"Together," Aerith said softly, "No matter the distance."

"No matter how far apart hearts are, if they wish to be reunited, and then they will be."

"The world that died, which was it?"

"A world different to any you may have heard of, it was an island world, with palm trees and sunsets."

"Oh… What a shame to see such a thing pass."

"Those notes, you take care of them. As for me, the Keyblade holder has begun to move in the worlds. There will be a time to come, when the shadows are darker than any you have known before. Remain steadfast."

Aerith bowed her head as the figure started towards the door, and then the small king paused, adding indirectly, "All of you."

Yuffie jerked back from the spy hole guiltily and coughed, eyes sliding to Leon who just lifted his brows and walked away down the corridor. The door from Aerith's room swung open slowly and she didn't dare stay to find out what her punishment could possibly be and with a footstep into the shadow and only a passing trace of grass and leaves, she was gone. But the memory of his words burned her, the look on Aerith's face as she stared down at the paper, as he expressed the vision of the world dying.

"_What a shame…"_

What did Aerith know that they didn't?

Yuffie definitely didn't envy her. Never, **ever**.

* * *

That night, as Yuffie slept and Leon patrolled, she lay awake in the folds of her bed. The cotton sheets were cold as ice, and the window slightly ajar so that a soft wind blew in, dancing along her skin. Her hair was partially unbound and was black in the dimness of her room, the soft slip of a pink ribbon lying over one shoulder. Her eyes, sticky and wide open stared into the shadows, her hands quivering gently.

The shadows didn't move but she stayed as still as she could anyway with shoulders shaking, the slip of a ribbon bouncing gently on her skin. The page from the diary lay on the desk where she had studied it late into the night, before the sleepiness had overcome her and with it, dreams.

…_A blur of colour behind her, the blur of motion and movement. She ducked by instinct and tripped over herself, headlong into the shadows._

_For a moment she laid there, the feel of dirty crawling along her skin and her outstretched hands, covered with the dark gloves and the emblazoned red hearts on the backs, thorny, glinting up at her with dark malice._

"_Down this way… this way… this way…" a voice trickled in through the air._

_She dared not lift her head to look, staring with eyes made sticky by tears as she sank down through the floor, screaming soundlessly but never letting air out of her frozen throat, keeping it inside. The darkness swallowed her and then, dropped her like a rock from the air._

_For one moment she hung there, air flushed against her, her jacket was billowing and skirts flying so her slender legs were revealed and the formal attire she wore for her job, ripped into threads of colours that vanished into the blue sky._

_She was being torn apart by the very air, and she loved it._

_She loved the absolute freedom this moment gave her and down below, looking up at her with a hand cupped over her eyes was the face of Tifa, smiling up at her. Her arms came up, reaching out towards her to catch her in the long fall to earth._

_Crying with joy, she extended her own arms and for a moment, her arms were about the shoulders of the taller girl, she could feel her breath, feel the dimples of the smile on her cheek and almost hear her say, breathing mint scented breath as she spoke; "Always together, no matter how far away, no matter what might come."_

_Then she stumbled and before she could hit the floor as Tifa melted away into the sky and scenery, a hand was grasping her hand from behind, tugging her upright. Over her shoulder she saw a brief flash of blond, blue and black, eyes like the liquid blue sky looking through her with an intensity she could never remember._

"_Cloud!"_

"…_all those things… still looking, for my light. I'll keep looking…"_

_And he was gone in a flood of wind, leaving her on the barren plane all alone. She stayed upright, looking about her as the colours faded back into her clothes, the simple pink dress and boots and belt that she now wore, not her traditional Heartcaster robes. Her hair floated still as if touched by a wind, and her green eyes were still sticky with tears. Then slowly, fearfully, she drew her eyes to the ground and there on the floor in the dirt was the ink outline of a thorny heart and in each section of the heart was a blurred, stylised picture of each one of her friends. But when she looked up, there above it all was the broken citadel of Radiant Garden, the now so-called Hollow Bastion and the giant stained window of a heart shape, mocking her._

_Mocking her as it shifted between reds and subtle toned hues, staining her very skin in its light and she felt her eyes threaten with tears. One of the pictures in the window looked down at her, the highest peak of those pictured; his cat eyes, his slice of a smile, his dark voice still chasing her after this long and without thought, she picked up a stone from the floor and cast it._

_The window shattered and in the falling shards of glass, the fractured pieces of her friends, she stood and let it cut her. She waited to bleed, she waited to feel._

…_she waited, ignoring how the glass turned from blood on her skin to fire…_

……_burning…her……_

She stayed there, motionless and purposefully not looking down at her arms, looking into the darkness for her answers, wondering at her dreams.

The cuts on her arms at least, had stopped bleeding.

* * *

It was perhaps a week or so later, as Leon was setting down the documents for Aerith, that she wasn't in the study. With a strange fear clenching at his heart, he headed for the balcony instead and found her there, staring quietly up at the sky.

He opened his mouth to ask what the matter could be, when she looked across at him, and then lifted a finger, pointing towards a dark patch of sky. His eyes peered at that space for a moment before he slowly realised what it was that she was pointing out. It wasn't the space, but the absence of something. His smoky grey eyes came back down to look at the slight girl, her skin pale and her eyes distant, filled with galaxies of wonder, greener than any grass he had ever seen and staring. The lashes that were usually soft brown were sticky, dark with tears and he waited instead for her to speak.

There was a moment where she almost did, but instead wiped at her face and turned away with a quiet sigh.

"Aerith," he said finally.

"The Keyblade master is moving. He is here, he is here sooner than I expected and I have so little to tell him, only what I have vaguely gathered from the King and from my own dreams."

"He is here, right now?"

"Yes, his world died. I saw it; I felt it long before I saw it."

Leon looked up at the darkness again, the small pinpricks of stars and resisted the urge to put his arm comfortingly over Aerith's shoulder. She would definitely not appreciate it and he would only end up looking like a fool.

"He's not old," she said wistfully.

"Oh?"

"Hardly younger than we were, when we came here."

"He's old enough then."

"Old enough… is there ever any age when that cane be said? Merlin would disagree with you; you're only as old as you allow yourself to be."

"Oh? What are you aiming for, two thousand?"

She flicked a brief smile on her pink lips, turning her green eyes down to her calmly folded hands. A door opened behind them and Yuffie sidled in to join them. Leon couldn't help but shoot her a look of annoyance – the girl really had no respect for privacy, ninja skills or not! But Aerith, as usual, didn't look at all bothered, simply turning to see the young girl in her sober outfit. Her bangles clamoured together on her arm, all three stood on the balcony under the vague jut of the hotel roof and the line they used to hang their washing out on, the small tub of dirt Aerith used for growing medicinal herbs looking in danger of being overturned onto the floor a storey below.

"I didn't… I… it seemed kinda important," Yuffie finished, lamely.

"…" He just sighed, looking at Aerith.

"Ah," said the elder girl, smiling faintly, "I see. Well, you and Leon should go and find our guests."

"Guests?" Leon paused, "There's more than one?"

"Oh yes, the King sent some people to aid the Keyblade master. Did you think we would uproot and follow him? Anywhere the wind blows?" Aerith's smile almost turned a touch into a smirk at him, in return for his earlier jibe.

"Why not?" Yuffie broke in, "This is just a crummy hotel and besides, what's holding us here?"

"He's holding me here," Aerith whispered and turned away quickly.

"He? Huh?"

"Yuffie," he said, putting himself between the girls, "**Don't** press."

"Press? Oh man, you two are doing this again. Why can't you guys just give me a straight answer, huh?"

"Yuffie!" He snapped.

"Squall!" she snapped right back.

They glared at each other, eyes narrowing in the darkness of the evening as they sized one another up. Leon almost felt like he would perhaps be able to tan several layers of decent behaviour into the annoying ninja-princess if she continued like this, nobility or not and those stormy violet eyes of the Kisaragi girl said that she was unwilling to back down either. The silence gridlocked them until…

"_My brother."_

They broke off from glaring to stare at Aerith's back, the somewhat lazy braid and neat tuck of a red ribbon about her hair, the face turned carefully away from them as it was turned instead to the sky.

"When this is more resolved, I shall tell you everything, from the beginning."

"It better be worth hearing," Yuffie muttered, "After making me wait so long."

"Yuffie," he muttered back, "Don't be such an ungrateful little…"

The elder girl was forced to break into their bickering again in her soft voice, never raised, never out of calm tempo; "It is a story, Yuffie, of a man who could have been truly great and was great. It's also the story of why everything vanished, why our world died and so many… so many with it." She turned her head a little, "…so go and greet our guests and I shall tell you the true story, about my brother, Sephiroth… and about the Heart Knight."

* * *

_She went, like a hare, running off into the outdoors with the hotel room doors left wide open after her. Leon watched her go before looking to me with confused eyes, but also a vague spark of anticipation; the full story, the story he has wanted from me for so long._

_I nodded to him and he went after her but… I am unsure if I can tell it all, exactly how it was. There is only my viewpoint on the matter after all. In their absence I stroked my skin and could find no trace of the marks of my nightmares, only the shaken certainty that something had changed._

_**If**__ the Keyblade master was here…_

…_**if**__ the stars were going to vanish…_

……_**if**__ he was still out there…then I must tell someone what burns inside of me._

_Our hearts, no matter how far apart, they will come together. This is what the king said to me. Looking from my balcony window upon the sky that changes each day, I know that every new day is a new challenge and every day is a new drama waiting to unfold._

_Tifa always said; "I never have enough time."_

…_and my time had run out…_

* * *

…_Her hands gripped his, pushing him off._

_His skin burned._

_His eyes burned._

_His hair was about her in a silken white web and she screamed._

…_and no one answered her… __**no one**__…_


	6. The Blade of Hearts

**The Longest Journey**

"_Plead with me to stay, and I will stay  
__And be forever yours and only yours."  
__-Excerpt from Lord Avon's 'I want to be your Canary'_

**Chapter Six: The Blade of Hearts**

Leon sighed and thrust his hands into his pockets, looking briefly back at where Aerith was nodding seriously to Yuffie, telling her that this was the time they had all been waiting so long for, that the keyblade holder had begun to finally move. She'd suspected it, not that long ago, but those suspicions had been confirmed by a series of omens as well as another letter from the King, explaining that two of his vassals would come to visit them. So for some obscure reason, despite Aerith being of higher rank, she had sent Leon to not only deal with those vassals and bring them to her, but to find the Keyblade holder too.

He sometimes just wondered if she really hated walking around that much that she felt the need to corner him into doing it for her. Either way, it wasn't particularly bracing in the air outside and in his short sleeved jacket he decided to enjoy the weather as best he could, without that blip of a cloud hanging over him.

In fact, both girls had started looking a little pale recently, so he reasoned to go down to the small shop that the trio of nephews ran to try and pick up some oranges, which might help boost their immunity to colds and the like. The last thing Leon wanted was to be stuck with ill people, making his own breakfast. The long yawn of incomprehensibility that was 'waking up' made him shiver without meaning to. Leon was the type of man who would burn down the house without intentionally meaning to, when half asleep.

But then, he reasoned, that Aerith was trying to exert some of her old authority again was a heart warming thing indeed and it brought a small smile to his lips. It had been so long since he had seen her stirred close to this kind of excitement over any sort of event and he figured that as such, it would be for the best.

"I don't see him or these vassals anywhere though," he muttered, slouching down just a little as he stood around the side of Cid's trinket shop, a piece of trash skittering past him on an eager breeze.

"Huh, what's that?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin with fright. Nearly. Leon had long since given up jumping around; it did absolutely nothing for his reputation as a cold type of person. Instead, he turned quietly furious eyes on the girl who hung upside down from the guttering of a house, tossing an apple from hand to hand, her black hair swaying with the breeze of the day.

"Nothing."

"Sure it was nothing, it's always nothing. In fact, if you took everything you said at face value, your life would be pretty damn boring, magnolia, and whitewash, dull."

"I get the picture, Yuffie."

"Oh? Well, that's good for you." The apple paused in mid-toss and with an acrobatic sort of shunt, she let go of the guttering with one leg and with the other, flipped out so she landed perfectly on the balls of her feet before him, her yellow scarf settling down around her. "Apple?"

"Did you steal it?"

"By that, do you mean did it somehow find its way into my outstretched hand as I happened to pass the fruit vendor, then, possibly?"

"Yuffie, you have munny…" He sighed.

"I know I do, I also like saving my munny. 'Sides, food should be free; this is sorta a wartime effort, y'know?"

"No, I don't know."

"Do you ever loosen up for more than a moment? Jeez… hey, I caught you, you know."

Leon stiffened, "What?"

The young ninja straightened up and tapped her nose with a finger lifted from the hand that gripped the juicy globe of fruit, her eyes twinkling as if she held the punch line to the best joke in existence. "You know exactly what; don't think I didn't see you looking."

"L-looking?"

"A-huh… are you seriously this dense?"

"I have no idea what you're blathering on about."

Yuffie grinned, that kind of 'cat has claws' grin that made him shiver. "Riiiight… oh hey, so you're looking for a keyblade wielder right."

"The Keyblade master, yes."

"So, what's the blade look like?" She leaned there next to him, biting into the apple and with deliberate and almost insulting slowness, asked atop it, "Like say, a key?"

"Well…" He frowned, "I guess."

"And it could be held by say… anyone but… one who'd be constantly mobbed by heartless, right?"

"Right."

"Maybe even a kid?"

"Maybe… where are you going with this?"

"Use your eyes, Squall," she said, pointing past his nose and to the courtyard where a kid of about thirteen years of age battled away with heartless, a shock of brown hair drifting around face that was pale and sweaty looking, in clothes better suited for island living and in his hands, was a sword shaped in the mimicry of a key.

"…that's Leon," he scowled, stepping out to where the kid was.

* * *

She stood with her hands clasped, watching them wander with aloof green eyes, supposing that they had slipped past Leon. But if her hunch was to be correct, then it would be no surprise they slipped under the radar, so she instead had come out to look down and as she did from the balcony above the back streets, she had been greeted with the sight of the court wizard and his knight companion.

For some reason, looking at them made her heart contract and ache sharply, stabbings of old pain that could not be washed away and lifting her hand, she rubbed at the breastbone, willing the pain to vanish, moving to walk down to the back streets where they were bickering over a map still.

The proud knight errant and his mighty magic user…

…the magic burned into her blood by heritage… and who was her knight in shining armour?

"My heart, what will ever heal it," she murmured, pausing by the door into the alleyway. Then looking back into the kitchen that the door was in, the homely little place where she made pancakes and was filled with the sound of Yuffie's laughter, dominated by the non-verbal presence of Leon as he read the papers. There was love in this house, this home away from home.

Nodding to her self, she opened the backdoor and slipped into the back alley, following the wizard and the knight quietly, yet making no attempt to disguise her presence from them; green eyes almost alight in the gloom. As the shorter, duck-like one stopped to argue with the dog-faced knight, she cleared her throat.

"Yaaaargh!" screamed the wizard, jumping into the arms of the taller, dog-faced one.

"Excuse me," she said, trying to soften her voice, "…did the King send you?"

* * *

"Did you have to hit him so hard, Squall?"

"That's Leon."

"A-huh, whatever, you really beat him up! I bet you feel proud of yourself, hitting a kid around."

"I just can't take that kind of frustration with you out on you; you're not supposed to hit girls. Oh wait…"

Yuffie scowled at his mocking tone, then blinked and looked back as the boy sprawled on the bed stirred, "Hey, wake up sleepyhead."

"Kairi?" he groaned.

"Kairi? Who's Kairi? I'm the great ninja, Yuffie!" She put her hands on her hips and stepped back from the bed as the boy bolted upright, fear on his face. A gesture of her hands from her hips indicated the room he was in was calm and free of menace, apart from the lump of unresponsive joy that was Leon, making a nice dent slowly in the wall, scowling at the floor.

"Huh? Where's Riku… Kairi?! My world… what happened, what are those creatures?"

"They're called the Heartless, we found you soon after and managed to separate you and the Keyblade," she pointed at the sword, propped against the chest of drawers. "That being near you, it draws them to you."

"Heartless?" He repeated dumbly.

"People, once like you and me, who have lost their hearts to the darkness. Everything left from the hollow form becomes a Heartless. Separated from their selves, all they do is wander aimlessly, searching for another heart to replace their own lost one."

"…" Leon looked to the side at the boy. "I'm Leon."

"Sora," the boy murmured quietly.

"Sora, your world has gone, and probably those you care about with it too."

"…Riku… Kairi…"

"But the sword," he continued, "Will only come to you."

"Why did it choose me?" Sora cried out and Yuffie felt her heart contract with unexpected sympathy.

Leon came close enough to pick up the sword and as he did, it vanished upon contact to reappear in Sora's hand, to which the boy barked in surprise, nearly dropping the blade. "It will always be with you, but… why, why did it choose a boy like you?"

"You mean," Yuffie teased gently, to try and lighten the mood, "Why didn't you get it." She threw Sora a hooded look with a vague little grin teasing her lips, lowering her voice so it was a whisper that Leon could still make out, "He just wants to be a big action man, gets him the ladies don't you know."

"Kisaragi…"

She couldn't help but smile artfully, sitting on the bed next to Sora. "The Heartless," she continued to explain as the Keyblade Master looked upon his weapon in awe, "they consume worlds, seeking the heart of the world. Once that heart is gone, the world dies. But you've been given the power to defeat them, to bring back light."

"Light…"

* * *

Her hands trembled, clasped together and her eyes fixed at some point on the floor of her red furnished room, the soft spray of a pink bedspread bowed under her slight weight as she perched there, looking for the right words to explain herself and what she needed them to understand. In turn, the two who had given their names as Donald and Goofy looked right back at her and she felt her toes curl just a little inside her well worn boots. It had been so long since she had commanded such attention.

_In the red and black perfectly structured and clasped robe of the Heartcaster, her arms raised to the crowd, her voice filled with authority, kindness and magic._

Now she was too afraid to even let the magic creep back into her voice.

"The King, he came through here, looking for his way," Aerith said softly.

"His way?" asked Goofy, tilting his head so his rather floppy looking hat tilted with it.

"Our world…" she strained herself, trying to fit the words together, the bitterness of raw grief suddenly there and she was amazed to feel her insides go cold. Simply speaking of her old home, her forever home, made her heart die a little more, filled with faces of people she would never see again. "Our world, where the great and wise King Ansem sat in rule, is where it began. A long time ago, he conducted experiments on the darkness, looking for answers in their heartless nothing, and that brought about the destruction of my world. A hollow bastion remains of what it once was, a shade, a remnant of a remnant."

"Ansem the Wise," Donald said thoughtfully, "King Mickey often spoke about him and his research."

"It's our belief that the King left to try and find his research, to try and figure out a way to stop the Heartless from spreading across the worlds. It might not do him any good though, when our world was devoured the pages were scattered, across many worlds…" She frowned, curling her hands tightly together.

"Oh no, we've got to follow him."

"Wait," Goofy said, "What about the Keyblade?"

"The Keyblade, an artefact of great power born from the strength of a heart, from the purity of dreams and wishes and hope." She smiled a little sadly, "The Keyblade master is moving, and it was your Kings wish that you follow the Keyblade master at all times. He is to be your charge… and he is here, somewhere."

"He's here?!"

"…he will bring back the light we have all forgotten…" she breathed quietly, trying to deny the trembling tears in her luminous eyes.

Donald seemed about to say something as the two stood there, watching her well up helplessly, but as he opened his beak to say so, the door slammed open, thrusting him violently to one side.

Aerith jerked her head up at the intrusion, surprised to see Yuffie standing there, her large fuuma shuriken in hand and her stormy eyes filled with worry. One side of her left leg was splashed with a dark, sticky substance. "Yuffie!"

"The Heartless, come on!"

"But…!?"

There was a moment between her outcry and Yuffie snatching her hand up, dragging her from the red trimmed room. She cast one hurried glance back at the two, Goofy attempting to revive the stricken Donald.

"Look for him!" She called back to them.

Turning back to the driven rush into the open streets and relative safety, she was ambushed from one side by a pair of soldier heartless. Yuffie grabbed one by the neck and with a leg coming about for the middle, the striking blow driving it full force through the open door back into the reception area, where it struck the cash register and with a sputter, fizzled out. The other heartless was unlucky enough to discover that unarmed did not mean any less dangerous, the bolt of lightning fizzling from her fingertips as the essence of the darkness that had been a heartless dissipated from Aerith's leg, the small heart spiralling upwards, freed.

Yuffie slammed the main doors open and without another word, she dived out into the main plaza. Then she slowed, catching a glance at the young ninja to see the same horror etched there as Aerith was suppressing from her own features. The vast plaza and the small fountain with the bell relief over it were covered in heartless.

The ninja swallowed and gripped her shuriken, "Aerith…"

"…" She closed her eyes with a soft sigh. "I can take care of it."

"H-huh?"

"Don't you remember the day we met?"

Yuffie's eyes cleared to a pale violet of twilight, looking at her as memories drifted in. Aerith tried to keep thoughts of Tifa from her mind, but that absence from her side felt even more pronounced as she clambered her way onto a small rising strut of the brick wall by their halfway home.

She tilted her face to the sky and then opened her eyes.

A sea of stars swam overhead, each one blinking. She bit her lip and lifted her hands slowly to the sky, palms flat. There was a silence growing around her. But in that silence, she found the music slowly tinkling, the soft notes of a piano as someone played in intense concentration, a perfect melody that she would hum softly to herself, the quiet company of those she loved, and the voiceless feelings. All these things were contained in that perfect stretch of silence as she centred herself and then, closing her eyes to the smallest of slits, so small that her dark eyelashes brushed on her cheeks.

One by one the brightness of the stars began to intensify and then, swirling, that light seemed to be called down towards her. The trails of light were so bright that beside her, despite her mouth hanging a little open, Yuffie was forced to shade her eyes. Spiralling, they suddenly flared into brilliance as they struck with resounding crashes into the heartless, a merciless, heavenly lightning.

Her hands stretched high to the stars, she heard none of the chaos, none of the heat on her face or her clothes, was unaware of how she presented herself, limned in this wonderful, terrifying power and how her hair flowed about her wildly.

There was just Aerith and the magic.

When many minutes had passed, she knew the moment of her brilliance had faded and she opened her eyes, looking down at the cleared plaza, then to Yuffie's face.

Those eyes which changed colour with her moods were filled with emotion, tears streaming down youthful cheeks and chokingly, the Ninja sobbed out, "Aerith."

Her voice was a little tired and a little wistful, "Yuffie."

"You're amazing, you're amazing," Yuffie wept, "W-why didn't you show me sooner? Why? You're so powerful, you're just… you…"

"…because…" Aerith looked back at the stars and reached up for her string necklace, then smiled, "…because I didn't want to be the Heartcaster, I think."

"But why?"

"Because of _him_."

"I don't understand?"

"I'll explain it all, when they have moved on, I will explain it all, I promise."

The stars twinkled and Aerith smiled sadly, as the magic burned in her blood again.

* * *

It was a few hours later that she drew her arms close to herself, watching the young boy and the two emissaries of King Mickey talk together, getting ready for their long journey through the stars. She found herself fixated on the features of Sora, this tender young Keyblade wielder who would create their future and past again, reconstruct it from shards of a reality, and was reminded of Cloud in his bright blue eyes. The same earnest look he would sometimes give her when they were alone, as if he wanted to say so much to her but was as ever completely unsure of what he should say to her.

So she ignored the gooseflesh rising on her bare skin in the warm evening, looking at where Yuffie was joking with Leon, then back to Sora. Eventually the laughter died out into a solemn kind of quiet between them all.

Aerith realised abruptly after a few more moments of this quiet that Leon was looking at her and their faces were turned towards her, as flowers to the light that gave them life. Her voice died before the words even made their way out to be spoken.

"Aerith…" Leon prompted.

"I know," she breathed, the lump in the pit of her stomach tightening. "Sora, come here."

The young boy approached her without any visible sense of disgruntlement, his blue eyes boring into her, his hair a messy colour of burned sugar that was so close to her own hair colour that it made her heart clench each time it beat fast inside her chest. With slow and deliberate motions, she drew out the small pouch of munny and handed it to him, finally looking him back in the eye squarely.

"We don't have much, but what we do have, we're very happy to share it with you."

"Thanks so much, you really don't have to."

"You're right, we don't have to," Aerith smiled a little, "But we want to."

The pouch was gripped, the fingerless glove that Sora wore creaking gently as he did so. "Thanks," he repeated.

"Sora," she watched him as if trying to decide what to say to him, and then settled on, "Be careful out there. You've beaten many heartless, but there are bound to be others stronger, harder to overcome. And most of all, no matter where you go, remember this." Her finger outstretched and poked him gently in the chest.

"My heart?"

"Your heart is what you fill with both light and darkness. But you must also be aware that one may not live without the other. Fill your heart too much with light, and the shadow will grow larger and larger behind it. Everything in measure."

"…I don't understand."

"You will do. And if you should ever lose your light, then keep looking for it, looking for that one thing that means everything to you, or maybe two things, or more. Look for them, for that happiness." She straightened up, her soft brown bangs hanging about her face, "and please take care?"

"And eat cake!" Yuffie chimed in, Leon's hand buffeting her on the shoulder gently, to which she laughed, "But cake is good!"

Sora smiled up at them, gripping the pouch and blade, "Don't worry, we'll do great."

Never before, with that blade over his shoulder and the cocky tilt of his grin, had Sora ever resembled Cloud so much and to some extent, with that absolute determination, Tifa. Aerith was helpless but to smile in return, "I know you will."

And for the first time in a while, she knew she was right.

* * *

The clean up of their home had taken a few hours of industrious scrubbing, the hotel reception and green bedroom had been the worst struck by the heartless. Broken windows were magically pieced back together with Merlin's deft hand and long after the helping hands of the friendly locals had retreated back to their own safe homes, did Aerith make cocoa. Leon built the fire up in the small sitting room, with the large and comfortable chairs, three of them all drawn close to the hearth and the firefly globes they used for lighting.

The cocoa in three large mugs on a heavy tray and comfortable thick nightwear on, Aerith came into the room, to where Leon was sat on the edge of his chair and Yuffie curled up, her eyes bright. Both were in their nightclothes, but their weapons so nervously were not far from hand.

Aerith smiled a little to herself and set the tray down, handing out the cocoa to each person and then taking the last, in a pink painted and enamelled mug, for herself. Conscious of spilling it upon herself for it would surely burn her skin, she settled back on her knees on the floor before the fire.

"Aerith," Leon began, but she shook her head.

"I promised."

"…you don't have to…"

"The truth will out." Aerith looked up at the flames, then at Yuffie and Leon, "All of it. The truth that I've kept hidden for so long, and I wonder, if the truth of this story will change things, will change the world we may yet return to."

Yuffie squirmed upright to listen, as with trembling hands Aerith lowered her cocoa, her green eyes soft and highlighted by the crackling, vibrant flames.

"It all began, with a boy called Sephiroth, when I was a young, young girl…"


	7. In Ways So Broken

_(( A/N: Gah it takes me forever to do anything... anyhow... it's that chapter, finally! Aerith discusses the dark problem with Sephiroth and her childhood...))_

**The Longest Journey**

**-------------------------**

_Echoes and silence, patience and grace  
__All of these moments, I'll never replace  
__No fear of my heart, absence of faith  
__All I want is to be home.  
__  
__People I've loved, I have no regrets  
_…_some I remember, some I forget…  
_…_some of them living, some of them dead…  
__All I want is to be home._

_The Foo Fighters, "Home"_

**Chapter Seven: In Ways So Broken**

----------------------------

_She spoke softly to them; she spoke with words she had held inside for too long. She told them of the days of her youth, the days she had dreamed would last forever. Their faces were a rapt audience as she wove the story of her life and painted for them with colours they had never seen before, with sounds they could never replace again, that which had come to make up her present, that darkness which dominated her every nightmare._

_She began slowly, she began where all things should begin and that is, as with many stories, at the beginning…_

_

* * *

_

She was light and Tifa was darkness, and together they went hand in hand, in perfect harmony. She was sunshine and smiles, as Tifa was moonlight and quiet. She broke the day with her thoughtless laughter and Tifa picked up the pieces considerately.

Since a young age, as long as she had been able to walk, she and Tifa had been friends, the best of friends and the closest of friends. Tifa was rich, but that didn't bother Aerith. To Aerith, there was more to the world than material gains. When Tifa brought her presents, she exclaimed more over the colour of the wrapping than of the gift itself. When they went to play, Tifa would attack the jungle Jim with a kind of furious energy, whereas she sat in the grass and listened to the world.

For as long as Aerith could remember, there had always been the voice of the planet in her ear. Her mother said it was because Aerith was of the special old blood, within her lay the blood of those who had come to Radiant Garden many, many years ago and made their home here, protecting the flow of worlds against the tide of darkness. It was their blood that ran in her veins and gave her the gift of powerful magic. To Aerith, the voice of the planet was never more than a kind whisper, a loving soothing touch on her soul that said softly, it would always be there for her. With her gift, the world was alive with conversation; from the birds and the bees to the very plants that grew and sustained the world. All of it spoke to her, comforting her when she felt sad and offering advice and help for when she was stuck with problems.

Aerith knew that Tifa could not hear the Planet, and this made her sad, that her best friend could not hear it. There was someone else who also knew of Aerith's special gift in those precious days of youth, before others would discover her powerful heritage. His own magic was as strong as her own, but darker, violent in its own way.

Sephiroth, her elder brother.

He was handsome, she supposed, with his finely chiselled looks and his swathe of silver-blonde hair but his eyes chilled her faintly and with each passing day, their burning intensity upon her fragile pale skin grew to uncomfortable degrees. Those eyes, catlike and devouring her with an all-consuming need to possess that which she did. For poor, elder brother Sephiroth did not hear the voice of the beautiful planet. There was no voice in his ear, any gentle whisper or loving touch. For him, there was only silence.

Once he said to her as she pulled on her boots to play with Tifa, not long before her sixth birthday, "Aerith."

"Yes brother?"

"If you could never hear it again, would you?"

It could only mean one thing, and she looked up at her brother, older than she by many years and tilted her head in confusion, "I don't understan'."

"Aerith," his hand came to rest on her head, fuzzing up her golden brown locks of hair. "It doesn't matter, not really."

"Brother, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

And she smiled up at him thoughtlessly, for she loved her brother and he loved her. No one was more special than her elder brother, gifted, brilliant and someone she looked up to as a hero. Sephiroth had great things planned for his future. He was talented not only with magic but with the sword and tactical matters. They spoke in not-so-whispers about him joining the Heart Guard.

But in the months to come, someone else came into her life that would set schism between all aspects of her otherwise perfect life.

Cloud Strife.

Strife by name and strife by nature, the recitient young boy was in her own year at school, whilst unlucky Tifa was a year under them, missing out by a mere few weeks of the scholastic cut off. So it was that lessons at school were taken with Cloud and she found herself, as she grew older, looking upon him as more than simply an awkward, shy friend. Blossoming towards teenage hood, Aerith began to develop confusing feelings surrounding this young man.

Tifa on the other hand, was not amused and did everything she could to prevent the two from getting any time together. Only it was then that the fire happened.

Aerith only remembered sketchy details at the best. There was a fire in the home, and it blazed uncontrollably when she had been fast asleep. Her eldest brother was already far away in the capital, learning to be a Heart Guard. So her parents had struggled to save the frightened child from the flames.

There had been screaming and blood and the burning blaze of fire on her skin scorched it still to this day. And when Aerith had awoken, days later in the local clinic, she was told her parents had died from complications. Smoke inhalation meant nothing to her, and whilst she knew she should be broken and weeping, their voices were there with the Planet and the young girl knew implicitly that they were content.

And abiding in this knowledge, she was content too.

Tifa's father, a rich local business man and kind of heart, who had lost Tifa's mother, his wife, many years before to a sickness that had tore through the populace; he took Aerith into his home and took care of her. But as kind as he was and as happy as it made Tifa, she insisted on living in the small tenancy on his lands, close to nature and where she could hear her parents voices as she grew older. It was in the year following that the rite of testing came through the villages…

* * *

"Don't fidget so much," she said calmly to Cloud who was yanking at his tie nervously, the tousle of blond hair tamed for today only into something quite manageable, the only hint of the unruly mop a single flick of hair that refused to be slicked back by his right ear. His blue eyes gave her a vaguely reproachful look and she was unable to help the impish little smile that she returned to him.

They wore their uniform neatly or as neatly as any bunch of ten and eleven year olds could. Their teachers watched over them with hawk eyes, hands folded sedately but ready to spring into action should anything happen to thwart the course of the rite. She was close to the front with Cloud, the line of students not as patiently waiting as many of their teachers would no doubt have liked.

_It's a routine test; _the voice of the world beneath her feet assured her nervously fluttering mind. _Don't worry too much, you have the ability to make them very excited, but they won't do anything alarming._

Aerith wasn't sure what the planet meant by this, but the next group of children were called forward. The room was fairly spacious, cleared of breakable things and a long low table was set out with five head-dresses of dubious design, fitted each with a gem that seemed dull and lifeless. The walls were whitewashed and there was another table where a young man sat in a suit and to the side, two people in varying degrees of clothing but on each, the pattern of the thorny heart repeated; the glyph that represented the Heart Guard.

"Children," said the young man at the table, a small portable computer open and running next to another device fitted with five gems, colours corresponding with those on the diadems on the low table. "Please choose a head-unit and place it upon your head."

"…mmm," Cloud hesitated unwillingly, but Aerith seized his wrist and practically forced him towards the table.

The headdress she picked up was one set with a greenish gem and carefully she set it upon her head, moving her long bangs so they wouldn't be crushed under the metal. It felt cold and lifeless against her skin and she sighed softly. What had she expected?

The young man watched them all and when they all wore the head pieces, he swept on, "Now then, any questions?"

"Why are we doing this?" a girl in their maths class piped up, her braces helping to shape the words oddly.

"Good question; each year we test young children so that if any with the spark of magic are found, we can help guide their talents so they won't burn themselves out. Yes?"

The girl had raised her hand again and asked, lisping, "What do you mean, burn out?"

"Magic is a strong and mysterious force. There is always the chance that untrained; it would turn back on the user. The force could very well render an unprepared mind useless and numb."

Cloud tilted his head and Aerith followed his eyes to the Heart Guard members who watched with vague interest, "What about them?"

"Huh," the young man looked at the guards, then at Cloud, eyes flickering guiltily to Aerith, "well…"

"We're here to make sure accidents do not happen," the taller of the two said. He was a stern looking man in his late twenties, perhaps early thirties. He wore a strange long, half open jacket with many belts and buckles, and a sort of high collar to the shirt underneath that hid the lower half of his face. Unreadable eyes peered out over small sunglasses and his black shock of hair was very lightly touched with the first fingers of silver. "It can sometimes occur that young people get a bit too excited about magic. The results may be… interesting to say the least."

Aerith had not imagined it this time, the Guard's eyes moved very deliberately from Cloud to her, fixing her with a curious gaze and almost as soon as it had been there, it moved away.

"Well said, Guard Auron," the young man coughed and looked back at the children lined up. "Now, the exercise is simple, before you is a blank piece of what looks to be paper. The substance it is made from is reactive to thoughts and magic. We'd like you to project upon it the latest dream you remember having, bring it to life for us."

"We just think it at the paper?" the lisping girl clarified.

"Yes, please, begin." He tapped a few keys and then watched.

Aerith furrowed her brow and looked at the paper, willing her dreams to appear there. She was unaware of when exactly she was no longer aware of her friends at her side, or when the dizziness and joy began to overtake her. But there was her dream, slowly flushing on the paper at first, a wide field of flowers and the brilliant sunshine. But that wasn't enough: soon there was the scented and warm breeze, rustling the grass. Sprawling out of the paper was an image of her, running in the grass and laughing, wearing a pink and white lace dress, beside her, Cloud and Tifa, each laughing happily. The flowers grew wild and the grass long, spilling from the confines of the pictures and springing about her, the scent of summer and the warm heat of the sun, as hot as flames… as hot as the fire that…

A shriek snapped her from her reverie and she looked up from the page, shocked to see the young man who had been at the desk snatching the head-piece from her, stamping at the flames on Auron's coat which had caught light with fire. About the entire room, roots and vines of vibrant, wonderful flowers grew, as brilliant as her memory remembered and a glance down surprised her with the fact that her clothes had somehow changed from her uniform to the pink and white lace dress.

Cloud though, instead of the quiet companionship she had grown used to, there was wonder, awe and also… fear. She looked at him with trembling hands clasping at her threaded necklace, her lungs clamping up with a similar kind of fear. "Cloud…"

"…"

He looked away from her and in that moment, her young heart shattered. Drooping just a little, she was dimly aware that fatigue was sweeping through her, hands helping her stay upright. Voices spoke about her, around her.

"…so talented…"

"What else could we expect… she is…"

"…and must be trained, for her own safety!"

"…she may be the most powerful practitioner… in a long time…"

_Cloud hates me now, _she thought miserably.

_No child, _the planet whispered soothingly, _that's not it at all. Do not be alarmed by what they tell you. You are coming along just nicely. Just give it time and your powers will bloom…_

_And Cloud?_

…_that's down to Cloud now, _it sighed softly.

She didn't cry, the Planet was right, and tears now were pointless.

* * *

She was thirteen, or thereabouts.

Tifa stood to her side, looking at the willowy height of a man who happened to be not only her brother, but the Heart Knight. In the intervening years, Aerith had taken up tutelage under Merlin. His casual skill with the crafts of all magic had inspired her to learn all that she could, white or black, it did not matter. Years of practise had honed those impressive talents she had displayed so openly. Her natural skill was almost an art unto itself.

The sun was bright overhead, as she stood on the step of Tifa's mansion house, the manicured and beautiful gardens wavering a little around them, the heat rising from the floor was so intense. Tifa wore dark shades, even in the summer weather they were having, she had stubbornly clung to black slacks and a white shirt, her only offering to the summery months. Her hair was worn loose and long, a shade of midnight and her claret eyes were unreadable.

Aerith's fingers trembled as they were curled about the handle of the small bag she carried. Other bags were being loaded into the transport laid on by the Heart Guard to bring their newest magic user to the fold. She was aware of her brother looking at them every now and then. A gust of wind made her white and green dress flutter, her sturdy and worn gardening boots peeping out from under the flare of the skirt sometimes. She lifted her eyes to Tifa's.

"So," the slightly younger girl drawled, trying to find the right words.

"So," Aerith echoed, feeling foolish for her own inability with words; pretty soon she supposed, they would be stood together in painful silence, neither one willing to make that first break away from one another.

"He's gotten tall," Tifa noted, "He's become strong as iron, but as cold as it."

"Tifa."

"Don't 'Tifa' me. You see it too, you're not impossibly dense after all," the claret eyes were touched with fondness and then, the vague sparkle of tears. "You'll be fine there, you know."

"How d-did you know…"

"That you were thinking it? Your hands are shaking."

The finger that pointed accusingly at her shaking hands indeed seemed most unfair to Aerith and she almost formulated a little retort, but it died on the back of her throat as she watched Tifa sigh and blow some of the heavy dark fringe from her eyes. Childhood was over; it had been for a while. She had handed her notice in at the ice-cream parlour and was packed, ready for the vocation that would become her life-long career; ready to invest her soul in the mysteries for the sake of peace in this beautiful world.

"You're right," she said softly, a small smile coming to her lips, her voice so gentle that it drew Tifa's eyes as bees to honey, "You're really right. I'm frightened, he has changed, so much is different. But you know, going so far away, going as far as I am; I'll do it to keep you safe, Tifa. I'll be there, watching out for you… I promise it!"

"Watching out for me, eh?" Tifa smiled then, "Isn't it the other way around? A hero for the damsel in distress?"

"I'm in distress?"

"No, no, dis-dress."

"…Tifa," Aerith murmured, "Your puns do **not** improve with age."

"Shut up!" Tifa barked, and then they both laughed together.

Tifa was the night, and Aerith was the day; and neither could live without the other. But turning away from her friend finally, she said softly as their laughter died down, "You know what else?"

"Mmm?"

"I wonder exactly what will be waiting there for me."

"Who knows? But do your best, I'm applying you know."

"To the Heart Guard?" Aerith blinked in surprise.

"No, to the lollipop parade… of _course_ the Heart Guard! I'll come be your fists," Tifa flashed her erratic grin, bunching an arm up, showing off her toned muscles; "I'll be your weapon, Aerith."

Dryly she muttered, "Whatever happened to friends? My, oh my…"

"Just be careful, Rissy. He might be your brother but…"

"…I understand."

"Then well… I won't say goodbye!" Tifa pushed her form from the doorframe, fighting those tears, "Because you know, this isn't goodbye. This is just a 'see you later', so you know. It'll be no time at all and we'll be there, banging down your door. And don't you worry, I'll make sure Cloud doesn't make an ass of himself too much, you can depend on me! So," there was that self assured, determined grin, "do your best!"

"Yes!" She agreed, smiling back then and lifting her bag, "I'll be seeing you!"

"Go on then, before I cry!"

She laughed and spun, saving herself from seeing her best friend cry and hurried towards the transport back to Radiant Garden, pausing only long enough to let her brother help her inside. One last glance back at the beautiful mansion and the waving Tifa affixed it forever in her memory, and with a satisfied little sigh, she leaned back.

Sephiroth, who had grown taciturn and distant over the separating years, spoke sparingly on the way to the capital, only to question her about her spells, her studies and her interests, and once, her physical health. Not once did her beloved older brother say to her that he had missed her, and after hours of travelling, she stepped from the carriage into the centre of the bustling aisle that led to the Heart Guard domain; her heart felt heavy and already the cries of encouragement from her best friend were fading in her ears.

"…are you sure?" He said suddenly and she looked upon him, tall and with long silver hair, his handsome face inscrutable. His clothes were vaguely old fashioned in cut, but designed to be formal yet functional. He did not wear shoes, but sturdy leather boots with silver bands, and his hands had leather gloves upon them which creaked.

"I am sure, elder brother," she replied.

"You can turn back now, if you wish."

"…No. I promised. To do my best, I promised that."

"I see, then welcome…"

Welcome she was indeed, to the Heart Guard.

* * *

Radiant Garden was a beautiful city built around the towering castle where King Ansem resided. The castle was almost gothic in appearance, but saved from severity by roses and beautiful pennants which snapped in the wind of each day and night. A beacon of light shone from each parapet and the regular guards wore their grey uniforms with the red stripes down the left side with pride. The gardens were beautiful, a city of houses that seemed to have no real pattern to their planning, large plazas with tinkling fountains, parks and wide open spaces for markets, where children played underfoot.

The actual quarters for the Heart Guard were located somewhat to the side of the large castle. Set evenly distanced from the centres for each skilled use of talent, magic, physical or educational, the quarters were a set of barracks for the trainees and small apartments for each member of the Guard at full-fledged status. The highest apartment was a penthouse, reserved exclusively for the Heart Knight and to the second set of smaller apartments, that top layer was for the Heartcaster.

A couple of years had passed since Aerith had left their small village behind, and a few unusual things had occurred. Tifa and Cloud, in tandem, had joined the Heart Guard together, Tifa finding any way she can to suck up Aerith's spare time. It was also during Tifa's time in the trainee section that she had become friends with a young man called Squall, and the three as lower ranked Heart Guard members were often put on missions together. Squall, unlike Tifa and Cloud, was not completely melee in his fighting – he had some rudimentary use of magic. As such his respect for Aerith was magnified twice over, not just for her talents, but for the fact that Aerith had risen to the position of Heartcaster.

As much respect as this had gathered her from almost everyone else, it had only seemed to widen the gap between Aerith and Cloud. He did not speak to her; in fact, to get a single look from him was almost amazing. He used a bulky looking sword and was increasingly clumsy.

She supposed this was only natural; she was the highest ranked magician in the entire Guard now. And her elder brother, frightening in his darkness, was the Heart Knight.

It was in those years, that Tifa's father died in a freak accident.

The voice of the Planet in her ear calmly told Aerith that he was at peace, as happy in death as he had been in life. A small little part of her, looking at the stony stiffness of Tifa's expression wished that he could at least have felt a little guilty about leaving his daughter behind.

Tifa did not weep. She did not fling herself upon her bed and sob her grief out. She did not sit listlessly, nor did she ignore anyone. Her expression was almost perfectly schooled to cheerfulness around people, her voice never cracking nor showing a single hint of what she felt inside. At the funeral, there had been lots of people, it was obscene in how lavish it was, but even in the sea of people, looking over his coffin towards Tifa's face, hidden behind the black silk, there were no tears. The face was pale, certainly, but the eyes were mysteries of calm.

After many days of being unable to stand this kind of protective nothingness that Tifa invested about herself, did Aerith finally get her alone, and flung herself upon that girl, hugging her so tightly until her arms should break. In her calmest and most reasonable voice, she demanded outright, that Tifa speak, that she let her know how she felt.

And when the first tear slid down the perfectly smooth cheek of the younger, yet taller Tifa, Aerith knew she had been so close to falling apart all this time.

"There's just not enough time, for everything," Tifa sighed softly, after the storm of weeping was over, and they had gone out to sit in the gardens, looking upon the day.

Aerith smiled gently, "It'd be easier if you just talked to me."

"I find it hard to. I'm not like you."

"I know that, and I love you despite it." She grinned a little.

"Pfft, tough love." Tifa tucked her knees to her chest, then lowered her chin to rest on them, "He wasn't going to join you know."

"Oh?"

"He said, he didn't think he was strong enough."

"Strong enough for what?"

"I don't know. Cloud's been getting weirder ever since you came here. He's … quieter than before, if such a thing is possible. He idolises Sephiroth… and hates him too, I think."

"Hate him?" Her big green eyes widened with surprise, "Why would he do such a thing?"

"Probably because your big brother has become downright creepy! He was watching you bend over the other day and I swear…" The gloved hands tightened so the leather creaked, "I wanted to vomit."

"Don't say such horrible things, Tifa."

"What if, this time, you're wrong?"

Her blood chilled; true, she had an extreme amount of difficulty reading and interpreting her brother at the best of times, but she couldn't be wrong. He loved her, he protected her fiercely. He was completely incapable of doing something to harm her or anyone she loved.

"I'm not wrong," Aerith asserted.

"I _hope_ you're not." Tifa sighed, "…it'll be the time for the Summer Fire Festival soon."

"I always liked that festival. I'm looking forward to the honey bread!"

Tifa's sidelong look was amused, "All you think about is food."

…but the festival was to bring hard realities…

* * *

She came to his apartments a couple of days before the Festival. Almost three months had passed since she had spoken with Tifa. The sky was dark outside and his apartment poorly lit. There was about it, the scent of something spicy and forbidden. It tickled her nose and without meaning to, she wrinkled it. She wore her formal clothes, having just returned from a meeting with Merlin and Ansem; a dress cut to her mid calf in an a-line shape, the bodice tightly moulded to her slender chest. It was high necked, coming up under her chin, with puffed shoulders and the sleeves hugging her arms. The entire affair was black for the most part, with luscious red thorns crawling up the skirts, encircling her waist and on the front, the thorny heart of the Heart Guard, emblazoned over her chest almost completely. Her hair was worn up and tied back into a complex braid with dark pink ribbons that bordered on red.

She knocked a little, thinking on how she had impressed the King Ansem with her proposal about Tifa's heritage fund and providing support for the magical enhancement of regular people, including a different way of testing and teaching. The old way was good enough when the talent for it already existed, but people were able to learn magic to some extent. Perhaps the re-energising of new blood would help stimulate the magical 'deformity' she supposed it could be called that defined the old blood. It was a naturally occurring magical genetic trait that was passed from parent to child.

"Come in Aerith."

His voice was dark and deep, and unwillingly she opened the door, stepping into the hallway, lit only by candles that seemed far too dim. The hallway stretched down towards a darker living room, the walls smooth as if sheathed in marble like some mausoleum. She shoved those vagrant thoughts to the back of her mind and walked without fear towards that room. There was a single candle burning there, and seated on the low divan close to the expensive grand piano, was her elder brother, Sephiroth.

His green eyes lifted from the floor, almost burning as he looked at her, then with an expansive hand, free of black leather glove, he patted the divan. "Sit with me, Aerith."

"Yes, brother," she agreed automatically and came to sit by his side. From the side view, his expression seemed almost pensive and broken, tormented. The green eyes moved to the floor once more and bangs of white covered his face from her, a veil parting the two. Aerith was vaguely surprised to find that her hands shook with unspoken jitters.

"I've wanted to discuss something with you for the longest time."

"What is that, brother?"

"I'm not your brother." There was a vague hitch of his shoulders as she filled the silence with wordless surprise. "I was adopted into your family when you were but a babe. My father was a scientist who worked with your father… I don't even remember my mother."

"I don't understand, why didn't they tell me?"

"Who knows," his sigh was heavy, "I've known for some time now. I'm jealous of everything you have…"

Aerith stiffened, only a touch, there was a dark note in his voice, a note of covetousness when referring to her. She crinkled her hands into the material of her formal dress, mind filling with all kinds of questions she wanted to ask, but he continued speaking on.

"This power you have, the magic in your blood. I don't have that magic, but I have magic of my own. You hear the planet, what do I hear? The emptiness… the great and vast emptiness of everything in this world. The stars are silent, the world is silent, and the hearts of people are closed and silent to me. Everything that you can hear I am denied… I want that power! I want to be able to see, and to hear, all things!" He turned to her now, those catlike eyes seized by madness and desire, "I want you."

"I…w-what!?"

His hands grasped her shoulders and a little terrified, she pushed against his chest. But he was stronger than she by far, much more physically developed, and he held her firm against her struggles, "I love you, my little sister, my little Aerith. We'll marry, our children will be powerful, more powerful than anything…"

"No, you're my brother!"

"We're not related, there's nothing against it!"

"I don't love you!"

"What do I care if you love or not?!" His hand skidded to her neck and with a single move, he pinned her by the throat to the divan.

It was in one of those bizarre moments of clarity that she realised she would _**have**_ to admit to Tifa that she had been right. His hands fumbled at her clothes, tearing the material at the neckline, sliding up the skirts and ripping the thick skein of fabric covering her legs from the chill of the day, one of her slippers working loose in the struggle to get him off her. Closer and closer he came, she could feel his lips at her neck, his teeth biting into the delicate skin of her shoulders and just when it seemed like he would finally be able to force himself on her after many terrible moments of clawing and struggles, the voice of the planet froze everything around her.

_This shall not be. This shall not be at all. Come, child, imagine freedom. Anything you imagine is within your power to achieve. Think of those bonds deep inside your heart, and follow it. Follow your heart, for it shall lead you to safety, to home._

"Mine!" he snarled.

"TIFA!" she screamed in horror, "CLOUD! HELP!"

There was a blinding light, pushing him away, tearing at his skin and the trousers he had shoved down to his knees. It threw him off her, knocking over the candle and in the process, pushing him directly through the grand piano. Behind him there were a couple of feet of solid wall and a window, stained glass of an angel perching at an altar. It struck him through this too, the ground miles below him and she stared in terror for a split second as he reached a hand out to her.

Then, the light consumed everything in her sight and when it vanished, she was tottering on exhausted feet outside the barracks, shaking badly.

Lifting her hand, she knocked on the door.

_What just happened there? What… what is going on…? _Her mind was a blur of feelings and distress.

When the door was answered after many moments, Cloud and Tifa were there, Squall just down the hallway with a couple of younger soldiers. They all stopped to stare at her, in her ruined state, the heavy bruising about her neck, the swollen cheek, scrapes and bite marks; the dress all but torn from her fragile frame and her hair ripped from the perfect braid.

"…" she wavered on the spot, "…Tifa… Cloud… please help me…"

"Shit," Tifa pushed at Cloud but, to her surprise, it was Cloud who got his hand in the way of her first, dropping his bowl of rice to get into the cold, throwing his arm about Aerith and hauling her inside. Aerith was somewhat bemused by this turn of events, but she was swept inside gladly, and down towards the privacy of Squall's ground-floor room.

Word spread like wildfire as she was hustled along, people coming out to gasp and murmur, but she didn't care, and she felt empty and broken. Squall prudently found her one of his heavier tunics and gave both Cloud and Tifa long looks.

"What?" Tifa said.

"If you don't mind, turn your backs."

"What!? You're a **guy**, Squall, I should be doing this!"

"You have about as much magical talent as a block of wood. Turn your backs so I can fix the worst of her injuries, please," His moody eyes were calm and reasonable; "Unless you _want_ to see how badly she is hurt?"

Tifa swallowed hard, and again, Cloud said softly, "He's right."

"No, she's… she's my best friend… I…"

"I know," Cloud murmured, "But he is right. Aerith," he added, looking at her. She jumped a little, hands shaking helplessly as she collapsed onto Squall's bed, tears in her eyes. How long had it been since he'd said her name, and looking into his brilliant blue eyes, she was almost certain for one moment, he cared deeply, she could almost touch what made Cloud, _Cloud. _"I'll fetch some clothes from your apartment. Tifa will make you some of her hot chocolate, won't you Tifa?"

Tifa stuttered, "Y-yes…"

"…see…then you can tell us what happened. Come on," he got Tifa from the room and Aerith was under the distinct, dim impression that her best friend hadn't expected Cloud of all people to act so calm under this kind of situation.

Squall gently handed her the tunic once they had left, "Change into this. I might not be a perfect magic user, but I know enough to get rid of your worst physical wounds. I won't look, I promise."

She held the tunic a moment… and then nodded, bursting into tears. Squall said nothing, he didn't have to, but he simply turned his back so she could have the privacy to change into the overly large piece of clothing and just his reassuring, stoic presence meant more to her than a silence filled with endless and meaningless chatter.

Once she was into the tunic, she tossed her ruined formal clothes aside and sat there, feeling blank and empty.

What had happened?

Squall's hands were nimble and he soon got to working on her worst injuries, the twisted shoulder most of all, from where Sephiroth had forced her arm overhead at a very awkward angle as she had fought against him with all the strength she could muster.

Her eyes looked at the rather plain quality of Squall's room. It was magnolia, grey and blue, with highlights of black here and there, even silver. His bookcase was filled from top to bottom with reading materials on both magic and combat. A small desk had his computer, and propped by it, his gunblade; a weapon that fired magical shells that he charged before each battle with his own skills. His bed was comfortably sized, and neatly made. On the desk was a picture of Squall, Cloud and Tifa, all in their uniforms on the day they had graduated into the Heart Guard.

There had been a great magically created light and it had hurt Sephiroth. But that was about all she could remember of that… it was as if the very Planet had risen up to deny him what he had wanted to most.

Tifa and Cloud came back once Squall had managed to lessen the bruising on her neck, and with her chilled and shaking hands cupping the mug of hot chocolate and her three friends gathered about her, she found herself staring aimlessly at the floor.

It was, characteristically, Tifa who spoke up first. "What happened, Rissy?"

It took her several minutes to get the words ordered in her head, but when she did, the darkness, the bleakness that followed them, threatened to devastate her understanding of the world… but once spoken, they would be but one chain in the link that led to the destruction of Radiant Garden.

With bloodless lips and chilled heart, she wept, "He tried to… my brother, Sephiroth, tried to rape me."

* * *

The Summer Festival of Fire was a tradition that actually belonged to the tribes of Utai, but the tradition, like many tend to, transcended one society and was adapted by the greater one, to the delight of everyone who attended such things. There were fireworks blooming in the sky, the large bonfires where people danced about, paper lanterns filled with small candles set into both the sky and lake, floating and flying away like tiny angels from the shore and land.

Aerith, dressed in her second set of formal clothes, wore her hair in an intricate coronet of braids set with a fiery tiara of rubies, flanked by three high ranked Heart Guard members. One was Auron, the scarred battle master who had come to her testing years ago and someone she had grown to look up to like a beloved uncle. The stood on the dais and with a flourish, to the onlookers, Aerith smiled as two hearts of flame burst into being in her hands, stretched to each side. The crowd, as one, screamed their delight.

"The Festival of Fire celebrates not only life, but continuance and eventually passing. Celebrate that which you love, and think fondly of that which is lost. Let the fire burn!"

The crowd shouted back gleefully, "Let the fire burn!"

She twisted her hands, skirts billowing about as with one toss of her arm, then the other, the two flames hit the large bowl of oil and with a thunderous belch, caught and rose in a pillar of flaming wrath to the darkening skies, the stars twinkling back as in response. The crowds thrummed with cries of delight and joy, and for a moment, watching them, Aerith was swept into that sensation.

There was no shadow here, where she was safe among people.

The Festival progressed pretty much as normal, and when she got away from her duties, she and her friends spent their time wandering about stalls and eating all kinds of food. Like Tifa had joked and teased her about, Aerith was greatly taken with the many types of food there was on offer, but Aerith didn't have the heart to tease back that Tifa was just as obsessive over all the kinds of chocolate there was on offer. Even Cloud had started to loosen up.

Once, when Tifa had turned away with Squall to have an attempt at some shooting arcade games, he came to stand there with her at the shore as she held the paper lantern and candle, the massive lake reflecting the night back up at the sky.

"Aerith," he said softly.

"Oh, Cloud!" She straightened her hair self-consciously, smiling. He was very close to her, his blue eyes almost glowing as he took her in. "I didn't see you there."

"You've really grown up…"

"It happens to the worst of us," she chuckled.

She noticed that in his hands, he too held a lantern of paper and they trembled just a little. Attached to the lantern side was a small paper note, but she decided not to ask. For that moment, she instinctively knew that Cloud was trying to be open with her, and that a moment like this was a rare chance indeed.

"Aerith, ever since we were young… that is…"

"…yes?"

"When… you discovered your magic. It was painful to me, to think of you… like that…"

"…Oh…" Well alright, not exactly what she had wanted to hear, and she smiled a little, "You know Cloud, you have such a hard time with yourself. You should give yourself a break, when you can."

"A hard time?"

"Talking… thinking… …feeling…" She flushed a little, lowering her eyes from his.

His hands jittered worse than before on the lantern, "I mean, well, what I wanted to say… I might… not always show it… at all even b-but… I-I-I… I wanted… to you… h-how I… f-feel… um…"

_Oh my goodness, _her mind screamed suddenly, _he's going to confess!_

Her heart hammered against her ribs and she lifted her eyes to his, scared beyond reason and also desperate to hear him say it, after so long. His lips parted to speak, just as fireworks exploded overhead. They both turned, looking up at the flowers which bloomed into the sky, brilliant colours, shattering the night with fiery shards of light.

Her eyes shimmered with the wonder of it, then, she smiled softly and said, so only Cloud could hear under the noise of the fireworks. "You've always known how I feel about you, Cloud, and things are unlikely to change."

"…Aerith…"

"And one day, when you're comfortable with yourself," she looked at him, "that special day, when your heart is at peace and ready to come home, I'll be waiting here."

"Aerith, I lo-"

"_What's going on?!"_ Someone screamed.

Aerith dropped her lantern as the shouts of horror and screams suddenly broke the wonderful mood of the fire festival, the paper object forgotten as it lay in the mud. Explosive detonations rocked the ground and as one with everyone else, she fought for her feet. There was a showering of earth and heated fragments, as in the distance, closer to the lab areas where the festival sprawled into, for those labs held the fireworks, a massive fire was raging, illuminating the sky with ugly rage.

Lifting her skirts, leaving Cloud a heartbeat or two behind her as he fumbled for his sword, she ran into the crowds, using her magic every now and then to shield the crowds from large chunks of superheated rocks that appeared to be thrown down from the very sky, trying to strike at them with futile temper.

Tifa and Squall and eventually, the rest of the Heart Guard were there, surrounding the building and looking about. Some with the talent for magic were attempting to help douse the fire, summoning water from the very air with graceful motions of their hands, stirring the life essence of the world. She glanced around, and it was then that Tifa lifted her arm and shrieked.

"It's him!"

'Him' turned out to be a long figure who, with hands held to the sky and face turned there, wore shadows like cloaks and his face filled with a cruel exultation.

"Sephiroth," she whispered.

But no one could have coped with what happened next, for his speed was incredible.

Cloud moved as if born of lightning, his sword held up. Tifa tried to snag him back but her hands grasped onto thin air. He dove directly at Sephiroth, and with the dreadful snick-clang Aerith knew that her adoptive brother, her would-be-rapist and Cloud, her beloved childhood friend, were fighting… to the death. It wasn't long until others, shocked, also attempted to join in. Auron pulled her back when she tried to surge forward.

"No! You are our leader now," he growled, "Let us deal with this demon!"

Demon. Monster. What was Sephiroth now?

The fight raged, the fire was burning wildly out of control. Aerith stood frozen in the middle of it, hands reaching up to her throat, to the twisted thread-necklace she wore, her eyes swimming in tears.

"What do I do?!"

_Child…_

"Planet? Planet, tell me, what should I do?!"

_Sephiroth has done something unthinkable. He has aided a great evil in his quest for power and dominance, in his unquenched desire to possess you._

"An evil?"

_Can you not feel it? My pain… the pain…_

Aerith knelt slowly, putting her fingertips to the planet's surface and was, suddenly, surprised she had not felt it earlier. It was there, a festering darkness that was slowly eating away at the very world underneath her feet. The pain of the planet was sharp and agonising, but the voice it spoke to her with was filled with deep love and regret.

_This is the darkness of a power called the Heartless. They consume planets and once one is opened and consumed, it will move to another. Their power is a dark and hateful thing, it will know nothing but how to destroy._

"…oh my…" she wept.

…_I do not know how long I will have left. The King, Ansem, was researching into this power, to attempt to contain it, to prevent it. But someone used it against him… I am dying, child._

"No!"

…_I am dying…_

She looked up, just to see Sephiroth, who had knocked everyone else away with his fearsome talent, skewer Cloud on his slender blade. The younger Heart Guard screamed in agony, coughing up blood.

…and for the first time in her life, Aerith was consumed with anger.

Throwing aside all caution, for her anger was that of a friend, an anger of someone who loves, the anger of the very planet beneath her, Aerith strode into the flames and made a sharp gesture with one hand, them flames bending and giving way to her. She made her way up behind Sephiroth and when she was twenty paces from him, shouted; "Stop!"

"…Aerith… your name is like stardust…" Her elder brother turned; his eyes catlike and green, filled with undisguised greed and longing, a sick love for her. The flames grew more intense and in return she could feel the wind of the world rising up to protect her.

Her skirt fluttered around her, her hair rising free of the coronet and fluttering up to the sky above. She set herself between Cloud's body and Sephiroth. "No more."

"No? Come to me, be mine… I will destroy this world, and all worlds, and find the ultimate power and when I do; you shall belong to me…"

"AERITH!" The scream of her best friend was a knife that cut the air.

Aerith's eyes blazed with power, shining brightly, more brightly than the fire about her. There was nothing but anger, there was blood on the floor, on the slender blade of the Heart Knight, there was fire and anger, anger, so much anger in her that she thought she die. The world burned to cinders and it burned her just as badly, inside to out.

"My beloved Aerith," he murmured with his sneer dark on such a handsome face.

"Brother!" she screamed.

And the world was made of light…

…and Aerith was made of light…

…and everything burned.

* * *

_It was maybe six months we had left after that. Cloud grew withdrawn and the world frightened. I made Ansem aware of the sickness inside the world and even though we had thought ourselves prepared, and most of the populace had managed to evacuate the world long before the event happened, some stayed stubbornly. The Heart Guard was the last to leave. We were the last line of defence and so we clung to the world we loved._

_In those final few days, I wept for the Planet underneath me, but the voice was gentle and sweet, and loving… It loved me, beyond all things, for I was the only one left who could hear it._

_When the terrible day arrived, Cloud had gone to help Auron and Quistis. I assumed he would have been right back, but he wasn't. On the edge of the docks where we would take that ship to safety, Tifa said she would find him for me… and left too._

…_and even though we are so far away, my heart, it tells me, there is a way home._

_The journey is long… but when we arrive, there will be those we love._

_I have to believe it._

_As for Sephiroth… he too is out there… and one day, we will also have to deal with him… no. I will have to deal with him._

…_for that is my problem and mine alone… for all the ways I am broken…_


End file.
